In Which There is an Omiai
by Kayka-chan
Summary: Gaara makes the ultimate sacrifice; he gets married. For the good of his country he agrees to an arranged marriage, and all the chaos that goes with it. GaaraXOC *don't kill me please...*
1. In Which Gaara Foresees Death

Hallo! Welcome to the first ever Fanfiction of mine! applause and fanfare Thank you, Thank you. holds up hands Please enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I, sadly, do not own the Naruto series. This is a fairly good thing, 'cause if I did, Naruto would have turned into a frog by now.

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Omiai

Chapter One: In which Gaara Foresees death.

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He was dying. He knew he was. There would be no other reason why his sibling's faces would be so somber unless he was to die. Or unless someone took Kankuro's pudding, but even then they wouldn't look this depressing. Gaara contemplated this newfound development. Last time he checked he wasn't supposed to drop dead yet…

As he passed her, Temari pat his shoulder sympathetically and gave him a small smile. He nearly raised his eye brow. What in the world did the elders want? He slowly walked towards the doors and opened them. At his entrance; many hushed conversations stopped and the elders turned to look at him with clearly forced cheeriness.

"Ah, Gaara-sama, please sit down." He already was. The elders looked at him, waiting. What did they want him to do? Jump on the table and start to tap dance? One of them coughed into his fist, causing Gaara's attention to be focused in on him.

"Gaara-sama, as you may know, we've been having some issues with the Kumogakure." He nodded. Of course he knew. "Well, we have found a way to settle this slight problem. The opposing village also agrees that this is the best way to handle this…slight… problem with the least amount of bloodshed and it will probably secure a solid peace bond between Suna and Kumogakure."

Gaara nodded again. Where were they going with this? Knowing them they most likely are going to make him marry one of the daughter's of a noble in the village. "So, in order to do this, on the fourteenth of April, you are to be wed to the daughter of a very wealthy and influential noble of Kumogakure. Her name is Tsuki. Do you have any quarrel with this arrangement?"

Then, almost as if they had practiced it, they all leaned in towards him. They were far too predictable for their own good. Have any quarrel? They left no room for quarrel. Gaara mentally sighed. Of course this was the best way; it didn't end in war. If he disagreed it would just seem that he was being difficult and bigoted. They knew all of this too, judging by nearly identical grins on all of their faces. He mentally sighed again. Well, it's better than dying.

"Very well." He answered without emotion. The elders all leaned back in their seats again. He stood up to leave but was held back by the held up hand of one of the nicer elders.

"Good luck." The elder smiled in a way that was almost kind except for the underline of evil thoughts imprinted in his eyes. He didn't acknowledge the ill wished luck and left the room. Kankuro and Temari were waiting for him outside. As soon as Gaara passed his line of vision, Kankuro propelled himself off of his post against the wall to throw one of his arms around Gaara's neck.

"Aw, man. How did that go?" Kankuro all but yelled into his ear. Gaara looked at him from the corner of his eye, sparing him a small upturn of lips. Temari walked over to his other side and tapped on Kankuro's arm to get him to let go.

"How do you think it went?" she stated. "The elders just forced him into an Omiai with some girl he doesn't know. How would you have taken it?" Kankuro looked up at the ceiling and placed a finger on his chin, feigning thought.

"If she was hot; I would have taken that rather well." He said with a silly smile crossing his face. Gaara sped up his pace a bit to avoid getting caught in the cross-fire of the fight that would, no doubt, break out judging by the incredulous look on Temari's face. Gaara continued walking down the corridor, ignoring the smacking and yelping sounds. How did one go about one of these marriages anyway? In all honesty; he really didn't even want to get married, but for the good of the village he would do this.

"Kazekage-sama." A voice materialized from the shadows. Gaara's eyes wandered over to the voice and watched as a ninja walked up to him. The ninja bowed respectfully. "The elders told me to inform you that you are going to meet with the girl and her family in two days time." The ninja said in hushed tones. Gaara nodded to him and then the ninja disappeared back into the shadows. Gaara stood there for a bit watching the spot where the ninja had vanished. Well, in that case, he had better learn about Omiai before he went to the meeting.

"Hey, Gaara!" Kankuro yelled at him from his spot in the headlock, courtesy of Temari the wonder woman. Gaara turned towards him. "Do you even know how to act at an Omiai?" Temari froze mid-ear tweak. It was strange how they always seemed to know what each other were thinking without really trying.

"No." he answered in monotone. That was always the one thing that he couldn't change since his insanity had been lifted. His voice still sounded all evil and gravely. Temari nearly choked at his admission and loosed Kankuro of his strangle hold. She ran up to Gaara and looked him up and down. She slowly shook her head back and forth. Gaara felt his stomach drop, whatever Temari was going to do; it wasn't going to be pretty. She looked up at him with determined eyes.

"Then we have to hurry and educate you then don't we?" she proclaimed with a mischevious leer.

_Shit._

--

Tsuki had to admit; she didn't really like Suna. It was hot and the air was so dehydrated, that it almost hurt to breath.

Which sucked, seeing as she was going to be living here for the rest of her life.

She did wish that she could see it, though. It probably just looked like some kind of desert waste-land, but she had been told that it was very pretty when the sun hit it just right. She sighed and cursed her eyes. She heard her lady-in-waiting's kimono slither as she turned to look at Tsuki.

"Mistress? Is everything alright?" she heard it coming from… behind her and to the left. She turned her head in that direction and smiled a smile as best she could. Was she alright? Well, not really, but she didn't want to have to draw attention to that. 'A proper lady doesn't show her discomfort as to not burden others.' She recited in her head.

"I'm fine. Sorry to worry you." She all but whispered. 'A proper lady doesn't need her voice above a whisper; she should always sound soft and gentle.' She didn't really get that one, why would she need to whisper to sound gentle? Well, whatever, Mother's word is law. She heard her lady-in-waiting giggly, girlishly.

"Miss, I wish you could see yourself. You look positively radiant." Judging by the tone of her voice while she said this, Tsuki could make out a smile, sincerity, and a little bit of jealousy. She returned the smile and reached out her hand to find her lady-in-waiting. The hand was grasped. Nina's hands were also a bit sweaty. _Poor girl, she has to stay here with me._ Tsuki thought. She was actually comforted to know that Nina would be the one to stay with her. She's the only one that didn't think that Tsuki was a burden, and Nina made her feel like a normal girl.

Like how she used to feel. She felt melancholy sneaking up and quickly shook it away. _Now's not the time to be sad, you're to be married, after all. _She beamed a bit at this thought. Tsuki had always wanted to get married. Her father always told her stories about how when she was little she would always 'get married' to her stuffed animals, or perform the ceremony for them. Yes, she was dying to get married. Problem with this picture then?

She didn't want to be married to someone she didn't know and love. And love at first sight seemed to be out of the picture, so there was no hope to fall in love before the wedding in two days. She had asked about her groom, but she had gotten mixed results. Some just stuttered and quickly responded to voices calling them that weren't there, others told her haltingly that he was nice and that she would be well taken care of. She could tell by the tone of voice that everyone used when then talked about him that he was feared.

"Nina… what's my fiancé like?" she said this in her whisper-lady speak. She could hear Nina's breath quicken and her heat pumped louder. "Nina?" the heavy breathing stopped but her heart's pace didn't return to normal.

"Sorry, ma'am." She apologized. "Well…he's…um…" she was going for the haltingly-tell-me-he's-nice approach. "He's…nice…and he's…the Kazekage…and his name is Gaara…" She was breathing fast again, and her palms were starting to get clammy. Nina was panicking. That's not good. At the rate she was going, if she didn't slow down her breathing she was going to hyperventilate.

"Nina! Calm yourself!"Tsuki said in a voice too loud for her mother's taste but she didn't care; she didn't want Nina collapsing on her. Nina's breathing silenced altogether. "You can breath, just calm 

down." Nina's breathing started up again after she whooshed out the air she had been holding. Tsuki lowered her voice its ladylike sigh. "You don't have to tell me. I'll meet him soon enough." Nina's heart rate calmed it's self again and it quieted to out of her hearing range.

"Miss, we have reached Suna." The guard to her… front left told her. She nodded her head in response. She stumbled on a half-submerged rock and squealed. She heard sharp intakes of breath from all sides of her and she could feel the body heat of at least five pairs of hands hovering around her to catch her.

"Are you alright, Miss?" different guard this time. Where was he? She couldn't tell, there was too much noise now. Too many people talking. Nina must have figured this out, because Tsuki felt Nina's small, sweaty, but trustworthy, hand creep into hers to lead her to where she was to go. She could feel the gazes of many, many people watching her and her party's every move. Her father, unaware of the eyes, was babbling on with one of the sentries leading us to where ever we were going. The guard was irritated. She could tell by the way he answered her father's questions and by the way his knuckles cracked when he clenched his hand together.

"Nina, can you describe to me where we are, please?" Nina's hand squeezed hers, showing that she had agreed. Nina leaned close to her ear and continued to portray the setting to where they were. According to her; it was pretty much just sand, some houses, shops, and more sand. Nina paused slightly in her explanation with a sort gasp. "What? What's wrong?" Nina continued in hurried, hushed tones. She was describing the place where they were to meet. It was apparently just like their kage tower only bigger. A lot bigger. And this was his house. Which is why she had paused, actually.

They entered the tower and most of the watching eyes disappeared but were replaced by prying eyes. The kind that Tsuki found the most unsettling. The ones that didn't _need_ to watch you, but did anyway, because they were either getting gossip or because they just wanted to see you or because they wanted to know if you were worth their time.

She already didn't like it here, and this just made it worse.

Tsuki heard the sound of a door opening and Nina lead her into the room and sat her down in front of a small table, with her father next to her, then exited the room. Tsuki breathed a couple of deep, relaxing breaths, then turned to her father.

"Father, what do you want me to do?" She wanted to know beforehand so that she didn't do anything foolish. He father's neck cracked as it turned in her direction.

"_You_ aren't going to do anything. Just sit here and look pretty." His voice showed his irritation and nerves. She felt bad for him, but was a little shocked and angry that he would degrade her like that.

"What if someone asks me a question?"She inquired. Her father sighed impatiently.

"Then nod or shake your head in the appropriate answer." He snapped. Tsuki came to the decision that it was just best to be quiet when father was like this. She bowed her head to her lap and moved her hands around awkwardly. She stiffened when she heard footsteps approaching. Around… six 

pairs. One moved slowly and heavily, like the walker was dead tired, one moved with a slight bounce, two…no, three moved while shuffling and the last one moved with careful and deliberate steps.

"Are they coming?" Father asked anxiously. Tsuki nodded numbly. He fiancé was coming. What if he didn't like her? What if he thought that she was ugly? What if he called off the whole thing and blew the peace treaty up into bits because she answered something wrong? What if he was gay? Oh god, please, please, _please_, don't let my husband be gay. Wait, what if he's revolting and no one's telling me? They better not be doing that-

Tsuki was cut off in her mental ranting by the sound of a door opening and the pairs of feet entering the room. She gulped. _Here comeith the moment of truth…_

--

Gaara knew that there was bound to be something wrong with the person he was to marry. The elders would never give him someone totally perfect, seeing as they just didn't like him point blank. He didn't know what to expect; she might have been ugly, or she was schizophrenic or something along those lines.

He didn't expect for her to be ideal in almost every single way.

Neither did the elders, though. Their identical looks of shock and confusion that they didn't mask quickly enough gave that much away.

When he entered the room the man next to her, whom he assumed was her father, looked up with a huge, forced, smile. Gaara spared him one glance before he moved onto the girl next to him. She was small, and looked like she was made of glass. Breakable. She had her head bowed to look at her hands in her lap so he couldn't see her face. Her hair was a shiny silver color that was draped out behind her on the floor. Gaara estimated that when she stood up it would fall almost right below her knees.

Kankuro and Temari entered after he did and nodded their heads politely to her father. Kankuro was staring at her with mild surprise. Gaara guessed that he had been thinking along the same lines as the elders, and expected her to, as soon as they entered, stand up and proclaim her love for fluffy rabbits as the main course for a meal. Temari just looked pleased and sat down.

Kankuro smiled his mischevious smile and sat next to Temari. When they sat down, Gaara noticed how the girl's head jerked ever so slightly in their direction and her hands twitched. How did she know they had sat? They were both ninjas, so by force of habit, they never made a sound when they sat down or moved. Yet, the girl, without raising her head, noticed when they had sat. Gaara contemplated the chances that she was an assassin sent in disguise as his fiancé to murder him when he least expected it.

"Gaara-sama." His eyes looked at the elder that had said his name. He noticed that while he had been brooding, everyone had seated themselves and were looking at him expectantly. Well, Temari was looking at him with murderous intent. She had spent nearly all of the two days teaching him proper etiquette and behavior at an Omiai. She had drilled it into his memory so as to make sure this went perfect, and he wasn't sure if his sand would be enough to protect him if he messed this up.

He nodded and sat in front of the girl. She raised her head slightly, showing him a part of her face. She was pretty, as far as he could tell, but she had her eyes closed. Was she scared to look at him? Gaara reasoned that she had, no doubt, heard about how he was a vicious killer and had harbored a beast inside him. That usually made people a little wary.

The elders were talking to her father and the fool of a man brought up the war. Gaara's eyes snapped onto him. Perhaps he would give something away in his endless babble. The girl, Tsuki, noticed that her father was getting far too familiar with these people about the war and placed a pale hand on his arm. He stopped in mid-sentence and cast a glance at her, shaking her hand off the way one would with a bug. Gaara's brow furrowed slightly as he noticed that this man cared not for his daughter's well being, just his own.

The girl just retracted her hand back into her lap and fiddled with her sleeve. Why wouldn't she look at him? Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Temari's nose wrinkle. Kankuro was also looking a little displeased. They had noticed the same thing then; she wouldn't look up or open her eyes to them.

Gaara felt a spark of annoyance start up in his gut. Even the shyest girl would look up at one point, this was not shyness. This was fear or something that she was hiding. The annoyance continued to grow. The only one who seemed to notice that he was annoyed was Kankuro, but that was just because he was sitting next to him and saw Gaara's hands tighten ever so slightly before going limp in his lap again.

Kankuro nudged Temari and motioned with his hand below the table in Gaara's direction and they both looked in time to see his frown deepen.

_Control yourself. _Gaara thought to himself. His forced his hands to unclench and his face to become emotionless again. He would find out later.

The Omiai went well, relatively quick and painless. When it was over Gaara and company exited first, followed by Tsuki and her father. Gaara broke off from the rest of the group to go somewhere quiet to think. Temari would be showing the girl and her father their rooms, which they were going to be staying in until the marriage which, Tsuki would then move to Gaara's room and the father would leave.

Gaara found a peaceful place. It was quite high up, a roof to be exact, but it was quiet and he could see almost everything from his sanctuary. He relaxed and looked around. Nothing too eventful was happening. A few maids were hanging up laundry and a few ninja were walking in and out but other than that, it was the same as any other day up here.

He was getting married in two days. He didn't really care, until a thought suddenly struck him. _Wait, what am I going to do if assassins trying to get to me come after her?_ The thought unsettled Gaara. He didn't want another person to die for his cause, especially someone in his care as a wife. What unsettled him even worse was the fact that he was worried for her sake. He found that a little silly. _You don't even know her and, for all you know, she could be the killer. _

Marriage is a weird thing; it turns the mind to mush. Gaara closed his eyes and tried to let himself go into a meditative state. It worked for awhile, but was cut into by the sound of a door opening and closing. He opened his eyes and looked down. He couldn't see the people; it had gotten to be dark while he had been contemplating.

He got closer, but not close enough for someone to be able to sense his presence, and looked.

It was that Tsuki girl and a handmaid, by the looks of it. He let a small smile come onto his face. _I think I will pay them a visit. _Maybe she would look at him now. In a whirl of sand, he appeared not three feet from her. Tsuki jumped and turned to him in shock, while her handmaid screeched and asked what he was doing here. Gaara payed her no heed and looked over Tsuki's face. She was very beautiful, couldn't be any more than sixteen, and was pale. The one thing that caught his attention most were her eyes; they were a misty, milky color that were looking, but not seeing.

She was blind. Which explained why she wouldn't look up during the Omiai, and how she had noticed when Kankuro and Temari had sat, her hearing had, more likely than not, been heightened because of her inability to see. He nearly hit himself for being so tactless to her. Even if it was only in his head, he had still been rude.

Her handmaid was still trying to talk to him. He turned his eyes to her and she stopped mid-word. Gaara turned his eyes back towards Tsuki, who was looking at the ground. He evaluated her stance and noticed that by the way she was standing; straight backed but her hands were fidgeting in her lap, that she wasn't frightened, but nervous. _Maybe I should say something to her… _

"…What are you doing out here?"He asked. Her handmaid squeaked and hid behind Tsuki. Tsuki looked up at him again, eyes widening in surprise. Perhaps he should have asked how she was first…

Wait, she was smiling. That's good right? Gaara's face showed none of the anxiety inside, but she seemed to know that he was worried.

"I just needed some fresh air." She said softly. Gaara's heart sped up. Her voice sounded like she was singing. He nodded then remembered that she couldn't see and gave a sort of grunt of acknowledgement. Her handmaid still looked as if she was sitting on tacks as she looked back and forth between the two.

She grabbed onto Tsuki's sleeve and tugged once. In response; Tsuki leaned over so her ear was near the handmaid's mouth. She was whispering something in hurried hushed tones. Tsuki straightened up again and pat her handmaid's hand, which was still stuck to her sleeve. The hand maid looked back at Gaara then turned and nearly fled for the door.

Gaara just watched her go with mild disinterest. Tsuki's eyes followed the path that her handmaid took until the door shut, then they flicked in his direction. She smiled once again. "I would like to go for a walk, would you be so kind as to escort me, please?" she asked in her soft voice. Gaara was stunned that she had known him for about five minutes all together and yet she wasn't scared of him.

She seemed to notice his discomfort and held out one of her hands. "It's ok, just take my hand and lead me anywhere you want to go." Gaara looked at her hand like it was some foreign object. It was small, pale, fragile, and was shaking. She _was_ scared, she just wasn't showing any other signs. He had the weirdest primal urge to make her fear go away, so, without really noticing he was doing it, he grasped her hand and began to lead her.

Gaara had no idea where to take her, there was really nothing too awfully special about the court yard. He took her to go sit under the lone tree. It was one of those weeping willows, and Gaara always found it peaceful to just sit under it and listen to the wind rattle its leaves. He moved as many leafs out of the way as possible and led her into its clinch. A few leafs touched her neck and she jerked and tightened her grip on his hand.

He looked down at this petite little appendage in his grasp. It was soft, but it had a strength to it that told him that she had once held kunai before. Gaara held up her hand in his to inspect it. Having such intimate bodily contact, for him, was… uncanny, but he found that he liked it. He particularity liked the warmth that spread from the place where her hand was and went straight to his stomach, warming it and giving it a funny feeling.

His eyes looked up at her face again and he noticed that she was staring at him intently, waiting for him to do something. He dropped her and his hand away from his gaze and directed her to sit against the tree's trunk. She sat down with a slight 'oof'ing noise.

She looked up at him expectantly. What did she want him to do? She needed to vocalize this or otherwise he wouldn't have any idea what the hell to do…

"Aren't you going to sit, also?" she pat the ground next to her.

Oh. Well then. He plopped down next to her and leaned against the tree also. She smiled and scooted closer to him. His eyes followed her movements, the idea of an assassin still playing in his mind. She must have noticed his wariness, for she stopped and turned her face up to look into his. She looked sad, perhaps because he didn't trust her, he didn't know.

He wanted to know. "What's wrong?" he mumbled. She turned her face downward towards her hands, which were posed between his leg and hers. She fiddled and pulled at the ground, speaking something softly. "Speak up."He demanded. Gaara was confused and wanted to sort this out as soon as possible.

"It makes me sad to think that you don't trust me, when I trust you."

--

Tsuki might as well just dropped a ten pound coconut on his head. The way his heart nearly skipped a beat and his breathing stopped momentarily, clearly said; 'Whatthefuck?!' She did have to admit that it was a pretty strange thing to say after only knowing someone for a staggering six and a half minutes, but it was true.

She had a strange feeling of trust deep in her gut the moment he had entered the vicinity around her. Like a huge weight had just been lifted off her shoulders and she could relax now. She was a little nervous and frightened, because she wasn't sure how to act around this person that everyone seemed to be so scared of.

Perhaps he just _looked_ like a creeper. That was always a possibility.

All her misconceptions about him had been erased the moment he took her hand in his, though. No one bad could be so firm and yet so gentle when they grasped someone's hand. A bad person would grab your hand roughly with no concern whatsoever for your comfort, a good person with no interest in you would have done it carefully and with the least amount of contact.

He had just grasped it and led her away. Where to? At that moment it didn't matter, she realized that she was actually happy to be marrying this man.

So it did hurt in her chest a bit when he made an attempt to move away when she had just tried to move closer to his calming security. She wasn't sure why she had said that to him. Now that she thought about it, perhaps she should have just let it go.

Little late for that now.

They sat there in an uncomfortable silence, Tsuki fiddling with a hole in her sleeve, and Gaara… well she couldn't see what Gaara was doing, but it was fairly quiet. The only notification that he was still there was the sound of a steady heart beat that sped up at unnatural intervals, and then quieted down again, and slightly raspy breathing. Other than that, nothing. It was weird and Tsuki didn't like it. Was it too late to say that she was just kidding?

"It's not that I don't trust you…" Gaara's voice rumbled out. Tsuki stiffened in response and listened intently. "I just don't have any trust left." He finished with a tad bit of a guilty tone to it. What did he have to be guilty for? He didn't do anything wrong. Tsuki actually believe that statement; it was hard to be a ninja and trust people at the same time.

_Oh god… _Tsuki could almost feel the color drain from her face. _What if he thinks I'm some sort of… assassin? Ugh! Why didn't I think of that earlier instead of throwing out false accusations? _Tsuki seriously contemplated repeatedly smashing her face into the tree. _I'm such an idiot! And here he was being so nice and I had to go and ruin it! _

What if he got so mad at her that he canceled the engagement?

Tsuki felt faint. That can absolutely not happen. Everything is riding on this marriage working out; if I fail… there would be war, right? That's what she had understood from the way everyone was talking about it. She made herself listen to Gaara's signs. His heart was a little faster than normal that can indicate… anger, worry, fear, or embarrassment.

Tsuki assumed it was prize number one. His breathing was normal. Well then, that crossed out anger; if he was angry his breathing would have sped up slightly. Oh, wait. She had to say something in response. She gulped. Good time to smooth over any ruffled feathers. "Well, you are a ninja, correct? It is hard to keep trust while you work in this profession." She vocalized her earlier thoughts.

Is he back to normal? She listened. His heart rate was going down again. _Thank god…_ Perhaps it would be a good idea to quit while I'm ahead and go back to my room to sleep. Tsuki was rather tired from walking and the whole emotional barrage of meeting her future husband. She realized that she had no idea where her room was, much less where she was at the moment. _I need a person to get me inside…_

She would need Gaara for that. _Dammit, it had been such a good idea too. _There was some fate up in the heavens that was mocking her. No other explanation besides the fates were enjoying her stress induced panic. Alright, time to employ the help of those stupid lady-like lessons. She racked her mind for a rule that her mother had nearly killed her with to see if there was one for asking to go to bed without sound offensive.

Rule number 65: '_If you wish to retire for the night, then, in your quiet voice, innocently ask to be taken to your room. Remember; you must smile. You may also, if you wish, place a finger on his arm.'_ Probably not a good idea to go with the finger. Alright…and…go! She took a deep breath in and let it out. She turned to him, adopting her lady-like smile and tone. "Gaara-sama," he clothing rustled. "Would it be alright if yo-"

"Gaara." The gravelly voice interrupted. Tsuki stopped. What? "Just call me Gaara." _O…kay…?_ She felt her lady-like smile widen into a real, heartfelt, smile.

"Alright…_Gaara_." She giggled slightly at the use of the name. "Would it be alright if you could lead me to my room? I would really like to sleep." It wasn't until she had finished saying it that she realized that she had totally forgotten to use her lady-like voice, and had used her usual one, that always was a little on the loud side and always bubbling with suppressed laughter.

The kind of voice that a lady would be shunned for in society. She could feel the grin slide off her face, like water off a window. _I just keep messing up don't I? _She quickly turned away from him and pretended to look around where ever it was they were and try to pass it off as nonchalance.

It didn't work very well, perhaps because the fact that she was seeing impaired made her ploy for normality a little unbelievable…

Yeah, that was probably it.

Tsuki felt Gaara's hand lift her chin up and she stiffened. What was he doing? Did she look funny or something? His hands were rough, but not as rough as other ninja's hands that she usually encountered. She felt herself relax as his thumb twitched a bit, but the action caused his appendage to, quickly, smooth out across her chin in a very relaxing and reassuring way for something that happened so quickly.

_Crud, I'm blushing. _Sure enough, Tsuki could feel the telltale warmth of a blush spreading from her cheeks up to her hairline and down to her chin. In response, Gaara's hand dropped from her chin and she kept her face facing forward, where he had put it.

"What's wrong?" in such close proximity, she could hear his voice rumble out of his chest. She turned her head away again and he dragged it back to look at him. "What's wrong?" he repeated, slower this time, as if he were talking to a very stupid child.

"It's nothing, I'm just sleepy." She mumbled. _Ladywhisperladywhisperladywhisperladywhisper_, she chanted in her head. His hand dropped from her chin and he grunted a sort of assenting noise. He took her hand in his and he escorted her off. Once he wasn't so close to her, Tsuki began to become more aware of her surroundings.

For one, it was getting quite brisk. Tsuki shivered and subconsciously inched closer to Gaara's body heat. She also noticed that no one was watching them anymore. Where was everyone? Strange. _Perhaps they've just gone to sleep; they can't stay awake all the time. _The annoyingly optimistic voice in the back of her head suggested.

Tsuki frowned. That wasn't right, though. Someone always had to be on watch; it was a rule and a safety precaution. She heard Gaara open the door and she felt a gust of warm air hit her in the face. She grimaced but was glad for the warmth.

No one was in here either. Tsuki forced her hearing to its limitations and listened hard. There was movement upstairs. A lot of movement, actually. Also a lot of voices talking all at once, but they were garbled and too far away for her to understand. Gaara tugged on her hand to make her speed up a bit._ So he noticed it too. _She thought, as she picked up her pace.

As they walked up the stairs, Tsuki listened again. The voices were louder now, but they were all at the same time still and so Tsuki could only make out bits of it that told her absolutely nothing. Gaara dropped her hand and Tsuki stopped moving. "Grab onto the back of my shirt." He simply said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

She obliged and they walked towards the increasingly bothersome racket. She heard a set of hurried footsteps rush up to them and Gaara stopped moving with Tsuki following suit. The person was female. Tsuki listened in closely to the conversation about to take place.

What the woman said caused her to drop Gaara's shirt, and numbness to spread from her brain down; "Don't go in there; her father was just murdered."

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Oh, my, goodness. I'm so nervous.

Please tell me what I need to fix, and what I can do better.

But also tell me the parts that you really liked.

Or tell me if I should just give up on my writing and I suck.

Thank you so much!!


	2. In Which Tsuki Has a Chat With Herself

**Gaah I'm back! and I bring a new chapter with me!**

**I was originally going to post it on Saturday; however my computer was pretending to be sick to get out of work. glares at computer **

**Now, enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO, NO MATTER HOW MUCH I MAY WISH SO!!

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Chapter Two: In which Tsuki has a conversation with herself

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"Don't go in there; her father was just murdered."

Gaara felt the strain on his shirt go away as the woman behind him dropped it. He turned to look at her, concerned. She had a blank look on her face and her opaque eyes gazed into nothing as her mouth hung half open-half closed and her arms swayed limply at her side.

All things considered, she was taking it rather well.

Gaara had been worried that she would burst into tears or angrily swear revenge, or go into denial and demand to see the father that, Gaara was positive, was dead. Temari would never lie about that kind of thing, Kankuro; maybe, but never ever Temari.

He turned to Temari who was looking at the girl's eyes in silent understanding. Gaara was glad that Temari wasn't an idiot. He would have hated to explain that the girl was blind right in front of her after she had just heard that he father had been murdered.

Suddenly, a sort of half gagging, half inhale was heard from Tsuki's throat. Gaara quickly turned his eyes back to her and Temari made a move to catch her if she fell. Tsuki was swaying on her feet and looking left and right as if waiting for someone to deny it, pass it as a joke, and start to laugh.

She made the gagging noise again and stumbled into Gaara's side. He grabbed her upper arm and held her up. Concern was mulling inside him along with anger, confusion, and a sort of disgust at the human race. Temari's hands hovered around the other side of the girl to catch her if she decided to faint and fall sideways. Another gagging noise.

Oh god, she wasn't going to be sick, was she? His grip on her arm tightened a slight margin and his other hand came around to support the elbow to her other arm. She was pale and shaking. The being pale didn't concern Gaara too awfully much; considering that it was a normal reaction to news as shocking as this, but what did was the shaking.

Gaara had this 'thing', if you would call it that, where he disliked it when people shook. It gave him the impression of a sick kitten, and reminded him all too well of how people used to shake in fear whenever he was near them.

Insane or not, there were still some scars that would never heal and the shaking…'_thing_' was one of them.

"Calm down." He muttered in her ear. She turned her head to look up in the direction of his voice. Some color was returning to her already pale complexion, but the shaking was still full throttle. Gaara was at a loss. He had no idea how to comfort someone. Never had to, and didn't think that he ever would.

He removed the hand from her elbow and moved it so that it sort of hovered uncertainly over her back. Should he? He was worried. _Perhaps I shouldn't. _Movement and clamor was heard over by the door and Gaara looked over to see them removing the body from the room.

Or should he say the parts of the body. It seemed that the assassin had taken no chances and made sure that her father had died by means of decapitation. The smell of blood had come flooding out of the room along with the corpse and as a result her shaking nearly increased ten-fold.

Gaara looked back down at her. She had his shirt in a death grip, her face down towards the floor, and she was swaying again. Well, that settled that. Gaara's hovering hand hesitantly touched down on her back. It warmed his hand that had cooled from the brisk night so quickly that it actually shocked his hand right off her back again.

He looked at his palm in a relative form of fright and then looked down at her again. He stretched out his hand again and placed it lightly on her back a few more times in rapid precession, then let it rest there, moving up and down in a comforting rhythm.

He hoped it was comforting, in any case. It was also slightly hypnotic to him. Gaara wasn't a very big 'cuddle-monster', as Kankuro so fondly put it, but decided that he liked the tingling that came with moving his hand up and down on the fabric of her warm back.

She also seemed to enjoy it. Her shaking decreased considerably, and she lost some of the tense, panic sort of aura that had begun to develop around her. Suddenly, and startling Gaara quite badly to the point where he actually jerked in surprise, she slumped against him.

Gaara stared down at the limp figure in his arms. _Um… what now…? _Was the only thought that went through his mind. A sudden and gripping panic went through him. _Wait, if her father was murdered, then the killer would be after Tsuki too. Maybe she was poisoned. _He quickly checked for any noticeable signs; profound perspiring, labored breathing, ect. He found none and couldn't believe that he had panicked over something so stupid.

It was just too much excitement in too short a span of time. He gave a small, troubled sigh, causing the shinobi closest to him jump and look at Gaara as if he had just grown a second head out of his foot. Gaara pretended not to notice the shinobi's disturbance at his outward indication of emotion, and lifted Tsuki off of the ground by hooking a hand under her knees and his other hand still on her back.

Temari rushed forward and matched Gaara's swift pace. "What are you going to do? The wedding's in one day, now." Temari shooed off some bugs that had gotten in and had grown attached to her perfume. Gaara shrugged.

"Go through with it as planned." He answered. Temari wrinkled her nose and looked at their surroundings.

"Wait, where're we going?" she asked, clearly confused. To tell the truth; Gaara wasn't really sure. He couldn't have the girl sleep in the same room that her father was murdered in, but they didn't have any other rooms prepared for a guest. He looked at the petite figure unconscious in his arms. She looked innocent enough, quite peaceful, actually.

She would more likely than not be the cause of an early death to Gaara. He had known her for a total of an hour now and she had already scared him more than he had been in a good three years. He gave another troubled sigh that made Temari jump and look around, probably expecting to see that Konoha boy that she always hung around.

Or was it vice-versa? Whatever. He looked at Temari again. Came to a silent conclusion and turned at the next right. Temari noticed the speed increase in his pace and quickly matched it. "Where are we going, Gaara?" she repeated. His eyes strayed from the path her was taking to spare her a glance.

"She's going to stay in your room." He replied, tonelessly. Temari tripped over nothing and stumbled up to him again.

"Pardon?" she stuttered out. He gave her a faintly annoyed glance.

"I said; 'She's going to stay in your room.'"Gaara said for the second time. Temari stared at him and they walked on in, blessed, silence. Temari opened her mouth and drew in a breath to speak.

"May I ask why?" she asked delicately. Gaara didn't even look at her this time, too intent upon getting to the room.

"Because if she was in my room the elders would either all have seizures or go into cardiac arrest." _The prudes._ "This is the most proper way to settle the sleeping arrangement." Temari seemed to find this explanation satisfactory, as she didn't question it further.

Or because they had now reached her room and she didn't have any more hallway left to spend arguing. Temari opened her door for him, tight lipped and silent. He swooped in and placed her on the bed and then left the room, Temari and his fiancé behind him.

_Now, if you excuse me_, he said to himself in his mind, _I have to go see a man about a dead guy._

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It was warm. Warm and quite cushioned. Tsuki felt slumber starting to retreat and fought in vain to keep it with her. She struggled to sit up and became aware of the heavy blanket that was laid out over her. _So that's what was so warm… _

She reached up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. As she stretched her limbs, she cast out her senses to see if she had company. She did. She could hear the faint heartbeat and breathing of a being in deep slumber. Tsuki pat her hands around her to gauge her surroundings.

She gathered that she was on a bed. A heavily padded bed with loads of unnecessary pillows. That is where she came to notice her dilemma;

How does a blind person get out of a wall of pillows?

The answer? She didn't, she got to wait until someone came along and got her out. Tsuki gave a heavily distressed sigh and cursed her eyes for the umpteenth time. _Now what? _Tsuki thought blearily. She sat there in silence for a while, fiddling with a loose string on the quilt, then, threw her arms up in the air and nearly yelled; "What the hell is wrong with my luck?"

She figured it would be alright, seeing as no one was here to scold her for raising her voice and cussing. She grumbled darkly and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "It's not fair," she whined to absolutely no one,

"I never did anything bad, ever! And now my father is dead, my eyes are…defective," she spat out the word, "and I'm going to get married to a man that probably couldn't give a rat's ass whether I'm fine or not." She turned her head to the side and scowled.

The annoyingly optimistic voice in her head determined it was time to step in and give a moral support boost. _Think about it this way; __you __could be the one dead._ Tsuki wrinkled her nose and 'hmph'ed. "Oh, yes. Clearly." She growled in an undertone. The voice responded to little Miss 'Ray-of-Sunshine' with a very happy; _You should lighten up._

Tsuki responded by trying to kill herself with the nearest pillow.

Her ministrations were cut short by an awkward cough. She stopped mid-smother and slowly turned in the direction of the noise. _Right, someone else was in the room… 'forgot about that. _She slowly lowered the pillow and flattened it out nicely with her hands.

"Are you trying to kill yourself with my pillow, or is that just some strange morning ritual that I'm unaware of?" the voice was the same voice of the female that had alerted her of her father's murder. "Because if you're trying to kill yourself, I would rather you do it with this pillow," A pillow of a different texture touched the edge of her fingers as this was said, "seeing as that's one of my nicer ones."

Tsuki felt a slight blush gently spread across her face. She gave a self-conscious smile and turned her head to the side slightly, causing her hair that had been undone to fall in a curtain in front of her face. The female voice chuckled slightly and she felt the hair being moved out of her face.

"Don't worry; I'm not going to attack you or make you dance around a totem pole naked or something. My name's Temari." The voice was bubbling with barely suppressed laughter, either at her antics or some joke that had gone unheard. Tsuki raised her head towards the source of the sound and smiled.

"I'm Tsuki." There was another slight chuckle. Tsuki fidgeted. _What did I say that was so funny? _

"I know." She paused for a moment, clearly collecting her thoughts. "I guess you should call me 'sister', though." Temari gave another dry giggle. Tsuki had no idea what she was talking about for a few seconds, but as her half asleep brain slowly digested this, you could nearly see the light bulb flicker on above her head.

"You're Gaara's _sister_?" she croaked out. Gaara has _siblings_? Temari didn't bother trying not to laugh at the incredulous tone to Tsuki's voice, and full-fledged laughter could be heard rolling out from Temari's chest.

"Yes, I am. I'm the oldest one, actually. Then Kankuro, then Gaara." Temari explained once the laughter had been suitably calmed. Tsuki was captivated. She had always wanted siblings, but her parents couldn't do with more than one failure running around the house, so she was an only child.

Now she had two siblings. Tsuki would have been lying if she had said that she wasn't happy about this news, but she was also surprised that Gaara would have family relations. She knew that that was a stupid thing to be surprised about, but he just didn't seem like the brotherly type.

"But, he doesn't seem very…" Tsuki searched her mind for the most delicate way to put what she was thinking. She couldn't. "Ah, let me rephrase that; He just doesn't seem like the type of person that would have brothers and sisters."

"No, he doesn't." Temari agreed. "We, actually, weren't very close until a couple of years ago." Silence encompassed them after Temari had made this solemn admission. Tsuki was confused, but who wouldn't be?

Perhaps they had a family feud. **(A/N: PFFFFTTT!) **

Tsuki was quite curious, to say the least, but all of her lady lesions were telling her not to go into other's business. Temari seemed to notice this dilemma because she stated; "You can ask Gaara about it."

Tsuki relaxed. _Well, I won't have to worry about for a bit then. _Tsuki shuffled her hands around again. More pillows. Tsuki tried to kick her legs around slightly, and met pillows. _Good lord!_

Tsuki knew that it probably wasn't very lady like to begin to panic when you were being smothered by a plethora of pillows, but she was.

And Temari was laughing. Tsuki stopped and turned toward the source of the mirth. "It's not funny." She pouted, "How can you have so many pillows? I can scarcely move." Tsuki could hear the rustle of fabric moving around and found that it had become easier to move.

"There you go. The evil pillow can't eat you now." Temari stated then began to laugh at her own joke. Tsuki, sulking, cautiously slid her legs off the side of the bed and touched the ground with her big toe a couple of times.

It was _freezing_. Tsuki yelped and drew her legs back up to her chest. Temari, still laughing, touched Tsuki's shoulder and pulled her back into the bed slightly. "You probably want to wait until the floor warms up first."

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Gaara had spent the rest of the night and a little into the morning investigating this murder. He had started where one usually would; looking at the dead body and its parts. It was a clean, quick severing. No jagged sort of tears that suggested that it was a dull blade or that the wielder had no idea what they were doing.

He then moved onto the actually crime scene. There was blood everywhere. On the walls, on the beds, on the floor, and on the ceiling. However, it was dispersed differently which supported that the man was probably held up by the neck of his shirt or robe.

Then his head was cut off and he was thrown to the ground while the blood poured out of his neck. Gaara had a faint mental image of this happening; you can't go through most of your life killing people without having an idea of how these things happen.

Then he had to give orders to the shinobi to find the killer, search everywhere, question everyone, the whole shebang. After that, it was already light out and he had other things to attend to.

He wasn't very tired. He had yet to get into a 'sleeping pattern', as Temari put it, since the demise of the demon. However, fatigue did happen to him, now that he didn't have to worry about staying awake all the time.

And right now he decided that he wanted to sleep. Gaara had managed to get most of the work done for the time being and was wandering towards his bedroom when he was apprehended by a certain overzealous brother of his.

"Hey, Gaara." Kankuro hollered, not minding that he was standing naught but three feet away from him. Gaara flinched. "How's it going finding the killer?" Gaara looked at Kankuro for a bit, mentally debating whether he should give some kind of smart remark, tell the truth, or just ignore him.

_Let's just ignore him. _Gaara gave Kankuro a fruitless look and again began to walk off in the direction of his room. "Whoa, hey, wait!" Kankuro yelled after him. Gaara heard the scuffle of feet running and Kankuro pulled up next to him. "If you're going to ignore that question, then how 'bout this one; how's the girl?"

Gaara stopped. _Right, the girl._ Gaara had forgotten to check up on her. He doubted that she was in any danger, after all she was in Temari's room, but how she was doing mentally was a 

different story. "I'm not sure." He responded in a gravelly voice and turned around to head for Temari's area.

He was about halfway down the corridor, when he heard the sound of a door click. They both turned around and saw Temari leaving Gaara's room, quietly.

"Hey, Temari!" Kankuro…bellowed. Gaara cringed slightly at his volume but had his attention fixed on Temari as she whipped around and clutched her chest in surprise. Temari quickly ran up to Kankuro and slapped a hand over his mouth.

"Keep. Your. Volume. _Down!_" she hissed through clenched teeth. Kankuro pretended to look offended and tried to pry her hand off his face. Gaara watched this exchange with placid disinterest.

"Why were you in my room." He bluntly asked. _No use beating around the bush._ Temari turned her stare onto him.

"I needed to put Tsuki in your room for the time being." She whispered, "I, also, wanted to make sure that no one knew I had relocated her." She gave Kankuro a pointed look at this and he had the decency to look guilty.

Gaara rolled his eyes inwardly. To think he was actually _related_ to these people…

"How is she?" he inquired. Temari made a face.

"Surprisingly, she's taking it rather well." Temari said as her brow furrowed. Gaara felt the urge to raise an eyebrow. _Surprising. _He thought to himself in awe. Usually, they would have had the recognition that their family member was dead by now and would have burst into tears or something along those lines.

Perhaps her and her father weren't on very good terms.

Gaara didn't rule that out as he looked at his room again. Perchance she was just saving face in front of others. Gaara returned his attention back to his siblings when he noticed that Temari was trying to shove Kankuro down the hallway by squishing his head into his body.

He turned around and walked toward his door. _God, my family is so skrewed up… _He opened his door softly and looked in. Gaara saw Tsuki sitting on his bed looking towards the door with a mixture of fear and expectance.

"Hello." Gaara greeted in monotone. Her face relaxed and the expressions were replaced by relief.

"Hello." She returned with a small smile. Gaara walked the rest of the way into his room and shut the door behind him. He realized that there were no lights on. _Obviously_, his inner voice countered, _she wouldn't need them_.

Ah. Right. Blind. Gaara walked over to the bed and sat on the bench at the foot of it. He looked Tsuki up and down a few times. She seemed to be fine, but he couldn't be too sure.

Lord, he was bad at social stuff. _I should ask her how she is… _

"How are you?" he asked. Not very original, but it, usually, broke some tension in the air. It was quiet for a bit, then he heard Tsuki sigh.

"I'm fine, thank you." The way she said it wasn't very convincing; like someone whose foot you just stepped on and they don't want to be rude so they say they're fine but you can hear the pain in their voice. Gaara fought the urge to fidget. He was beyond nervous, even if no one could tell.

This stuff just didn't come to him. He had tried to study the way that people deal with this stuff, but his main lab rats were Temari and Kankuro, and they weren't exactly what some would call "normal".

Then again, no one in his family was. Whatever.

He couldn't see her face due to the angle that the light was coming in the lone window to the side, but he could guess that she wasn't crying, due to the lack of sniffing and smell of salt. Gaara come to the decision that it was safe to move closer to this unknown territory, and did just that.

He sat next to her on the bed, cautiously, and studied her profile. Her normally straight posture was hunched over and her silver hair was draping over her shoulders and spilling over the mattress. Her hands were gripping the edge of the divan like it was her only anchor to the earth and if she let go, she would float away.

He could only see a little of her face, due to the difference in their height and the fact that she was deliberately trying to hide her face. That irked him a bit and he reached out and gently, so as not to hurt her, turned her face towards him.

She looked broken. The fragile girl that he had first seen was even more so and her pale face looked nearly papery. Her cloudy eyes looked into nothing, but desperately so, like she was waiting for a savior to come and make it all better again. She was shivering, thought if it was because she was scared or because she was cold, he didn't know.

She looked like someone just kicked her puppy. No, correction; she looked like the puppy that was kicked.

And for some reason, it started the ache in Gaara's chest that he hadn't felt since he was small. He looked down at his chest and brought his other hand up to his heart. _Not again…_ he thought, at a loss. He turned his attention back to Tsuki.

_Oh, what the hell._ Was the last thing he thought before, and he will probably never actually know what possessed him to do this, he reached out and brought her to his chest in some form of an awkward hug. This is usually what Temari or Kankuro did whenever one of them was sad for some reason, so he hoped it would work here.

Tsuki stiffened, as she always did when he touched her, but it defiantly didn't last as long this time. Then she was hugging him back. She made a strangled noise and clung desperately to the front of his shirt. She brought her knees up so that she was, basically, curled in a ball while he held her.

She wasn't crying, he could tell because there wasn't any sign. This puzzled Gaara. Usually, someone would cry after a loved one had died, and she was clearly very sad. After she seemed to calm down a bit, he repositioned her so that they were all of the way on the bed and his back was on the headboard, with her head in his lap.

"It will feel better if you cry." Gaara simply said. It sounded sort of creepy, because of the raspy sound his voice gave off, but people had to cry for some reason and she didn't seem to think that it was alright to do. She sniffed a bit and turned her head in his direction.

"I'm not sure that I can." She confessed in a slightly congested sounding voice. Gaara frowned slightly.

"What do you mean?" he asked. She shifted around again so that she was once again curled into a ball but her head was on his shoulder. Gaara felt his muscles tense, wondering why she was up near his face.

"I mean that since I went blind, I haven't been able to cry. It's like something else besides my retinas broke." She explained, still sounding like she had a bad head cold.

"If you don't mind me asking," Gaara began, "how did you lose your sight?" Tsuki sighed and shifted closer to him, her eyes drifting open to look in the general direction of his face.

"It's a long story." She warned. Gaara shrugged, which caused her head to loll with the movement.

"We have time." He affirmed. She smiled gently, a smile that held no real happiness, and closed her eyes again.

"Alright, I used to be a ninja," she took a deep breath before continuing again, " and my team and I had been assigned to do a certain mission, it was supposed to be quick and painless, it was only a C rank mission." She said, " But, something had to go wrong, of course. The mission took place in a weird factory, and we had to get something out of there that our client needed. One of our members fell, and tipped an alarm.

"We had what we needed so we just wanted to get out of there as fast as we could, but one of the team wasn't watching where he was going and slipped in a puddle of something. I went to get him before he fell and alerted anyone of our location, and his feet went through a pressurized canister.

"Chemicals went everywhere, mostly on him, but I got it in my eyes." She was remembering this as she was speaking it, her eyes adapting a far off look. "It burnt very, very ,very badly, and they did what they could. My friend, the one with the chemicals all over his 

body, died. Chemicals burned right through him." She let out a big whoosh of air. " And that's all there is to it." She finished somewhat lamely.

She was waiting for something. Gaara didn't really know what she was waiting for, so he just moved a couple of pieces of hair out of her face. They fell back down to their original position, so Gaara repeated the movement.

Tsuki seemed to find this relaxing, which made Gaara smile a very small, very quick, but no less satisfied, smile and continue stroking her hair. After a few minutes Tsuki's breath was slow, deep, and even. Yet, Gaara persisted in combing his fingers through her silver tresses.

And as Gaara himself started to slip into a slumber, he realized that nothing had ever felt so right.

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Tsuki wasn't asleep for very long, but she was okay with that. It was a weird feeling to wake up in someone else's arms, but it made her feel safe, especially after reliving the ordeal with her eyes.

Tsuki wasn't traumatized by it, but it still sort of hurt to remember. After that mission, everything in Tsuki's life had taken a downfall. Her mother decided that since she could no longer be a ninja, than she had to become a lady.

Her father, who had been so proud of her and loved her so much, began to see her as a burden, or some form of curse of bad luck on the family, thus causing him to treat her rather badly, or just ignoring her.

Tsuki's friends were supportive, but they didn't have time to waste on a blind person, which left Tsuki alone in the dark with only her uncaring mother.

Sounds faintly mellow dramatic and like the plot to a bad movie, but that's how that went.

She giggled quietly at her own joke and shifted in Gaara's arms. In response, his heart rate picked up pace and he inhaled deeply, to signify that he was waking up. _Trust a ninja to wake up at that._ She thought in mild amusement.

_I'mma just pretend to sleep. _So, she did. Gaara seemed to know that she was faking, but humored her anyway. He gently moved her off of his chest and onto the pillow below, then got off the bed, judging by the way the mattress lifted from less weight. She heard his slow, careful steps move off the bed and the click of a door shutting.

She lay there in silence, listening intently. She could tell that Gaara was just outside the door. Just, standing there. Then she could hear another heartbeat and knew that he was talking to someone else. She couldn't make out what they were saying **(A/N: heck, she's not super-bat-woman for crying out loud)**

The door clicked again and the footsteps approached her side of the bed. She sat up and looked in the direction they came from. Gaara's harsh voice was heard from the never-ending darkness;

"Get up, we're leaving."

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**YAY!! is very proud of herself**

**I totally just finished this chapter without any major wounds! **

**Please review, with the whole she-bang; like, didn't like, what you want in the next chapter, etc. **

**Keep reading please! () **

**Next Chapter: In Which Gaara Feels Threatened**


	3. In Which Gaara Feels Threatened

BLAAARRGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!! –triumphant roar of sorts-

I HAVE FINISHED THE CHAPTER OF D00MAH!!!!

See? Even the charts agree------------- D00m bar llllllll..

I was hoping that perhaps I could make a small request from the very bottom of my heart;

If there is anyone who enjoys drawing and would like to draw me a small picture of Tsuki (it's hard for me to just picture her in my mind) I would be eternally grateful. You ABSOLUTLY DO NOT HAVE TO DO IT IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO!!! Thank you and please enjoy this chapter! –bows-

DISCLAIMER: I OWN IT NOT!!

* * *

Chapter Three: In Which Gaara Feels Threatened

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Tsuki was in the local book store. It had been a long day, and all she really wanted to do was go somewhere quiet and relax. It's not like she could do much else in a book store except sit there in the silence with the occasional sounds of paper flipping and the air conditioner running.

Either that or take a book off the shelf, hope it was the right way up, and pretend to read. She always had a bit of fun doing that, and listening to people either snicker or waiting for someone to tap her on the shoulder and say: "Um, you're holding the book the wrong way."

She had been with Gaara for the rest of the day after they both had their nap. She had to stay with him for protection reasons, not that she really minded; she was going to get to stand there and listen to him do his Kazekage thing. It was also a little interesting when the wedding planner came in and she got little snippets of what the wedding hall was going to look like.

After a while, though, it had gotten boring. She asked if there was a book store, and he had said there was, she asked if she could go, and he had said only if she had an escort. That actually surprised her, the fact that there wasn't a huge confrontation about how it wasn't safe for her, blah, blah, blah.

So here she was in the shop, somewhere between the romance novels and the Sci-fi, judging by what she could hear people mumbling about when they were searching for a certain book, with Kankuro, who had very animatedly volunteered to take her.

Tsuki wasn't really sure where he was at, but she had a rough estimate.

"'When You Know You Need a Monocle; Signs and Warnings.' What the fuck…? Who would read this crap?" Kankuro was muttering under his breath. Tsuki heard the sound of pages rapidly flipping and tried not to giggle. She had been sitting here for who knows how long listening to Kankuro read absurd titles and making fun of them.

They hadn't actually had a conversation yet, and Tsuki was sort of glad for that. She didn't really know what to say to her (almost) brother-in-law. She was a little wary of him, in all honesty. He was sort of loud and a little crude but he seemed to have good intentions and he was a very good brother to Gaara. It was almost touching to listen to their conversation in the Kazekage office, until Temari came in and interrupted it.

"Um, Miss?" A male voice wavered from over her head. She cranked her neck up to look in that direction and show that she was listening. She was a little confused; she hadn't even picked up a book yet. "I'm sorry to disturb you, but, um," he paused and cleared his throat. "Your friend is making the customers a little… um… frightened."

Tsuki turned her head to the side and heard a crash and a slur of cussing. No surprise why the customers were uneasy. Tsuki sighed and stood up, stretching her arms up above her head. She brought them down to her sides again with a big exhale of air. "I'm sorry sir I'll gather him up and leave."

She turned to call out to him and crashed right smack into a bookshelf. She stumbled back a couple of steps and rubbed her nose. There was a slight breath of air as Kankuro appeared behind her and steadied her. "Whoa, there! You alright?" he asked as he let go of Tsuki's arms.

Tsuki tried to gather up what was left of her quickly dwindling pride by straightening her dress and flitting with her hair. "I-I'm fine, thank you." She stammered out while she gave her nose one last good rub. "We have to go, Kankuro." He grunted in response and took a hold of her wrist. She lurched; quickly trying to catch up to Kankuro's quick pace.

There was a jingle of the bell above the door and the blast of warm air as the door opened and they stepped out into the tell-tale heat of Suna. Tsuki inhaled a deep breath of the only non-man made air she had in at least an hour. Kankuro was still walking full speed and Tsuki stumbled on a wayward rock. He mumbled out an apology and slowed down.

Insert overly-awkward-silence-with-no-relief-in-sight here.

Tsuki wasn't good at starting conversations, never had to be. She always had it drilled into her that she wasn't to start a conversation unless someone showed interest in doing so.

Which probably made her seem like a social retard sometimes, but, hey, what else are manners for?

Kankuro cleared his throat and Tsuki turned to, what she assumed, was where he was standing. "So, um…" more awkward silence.

"Nice weather, huh?" He finished lamely. More silence and then;

"Yeah. It's… hot."

"That happens a lot around here." He said, pointing out the obvious fact that they were in a desert.

"Really?"

"Uh-huh."

"Hm."

"Yeah…" He trailed off and Tsuki could have slapped her forehead. The weather. They just failed at a conversation about the _weather_. You can't possibly get any more socially handicapped than that. _Go on, Tsuki!_ Her inner voice cheered, _You can do it!!_ She took a deep breath in and...

"So you're Gaara's brother?" She could have hit herself for the second time that day. _Wow. Way to go captain obvious. _Tsuki didn't know that voices could sneer, but hers was doing a pretty good job of it right now.

"Yeah, I am." Kankuro said. Tsuki was glad that he didn't laugh at her poor choice of topic. Then again, he started talking about the weather so…

She noted the fact that his voice just got considerably warmer and he sounded sort of proud when he talked about his brother. He had used the same tone of voice when she had heard them conversing in the Kazekage office. She smiled and felt glad that Gaara had such a nice older brother to take care of him.

They took another turn and Tsuki nearly stumbled at how sharp it was. "I'm sorry, but could you please give a slight warning before you turn like that? I'm not upset or anything, I just need to know so I don't crash into something…" Kankuro chuckled. "again." She ended with slight venom.

"Yeah, no problem." He paused then continued; " So what, do I just say 'turn' or something?" Tsuki thought about that for a bit and then smiled.

"How about you say 'fluffy purple elephants'?" she said with an evil grin. Laugh at me when I run into something, huh? Payback time. Kankuro made a choking noise but didn't disagree. They walked on in silence for a while and then Tsuki asked; "Where are we going?" Kankuro's hand tightened around hers and she heard him take in a breath.

"I'm taking you back to Gaara. Fluffy purple elephants." He responded.

"Wha…?" was all she got out before they turned again. Oh. Right. Elephants. "How about you just say 'turn'?"

"Sounds good to me." Kankuro sounded like he was smiling again. They talked about a few more things, like what was going on tonight dinner wise, and what part he was in the wedding, or just idle chatter. By the time they were near Gaara's office, Tsuki's mood had improved vastly. They came up to the door and stopped. "Oh. Gaara's in there with someone already."

Tsuki listened. The voice sounded familiar. She frowned, gasped and barreled through the door, followed by Kankuro. Everything was quiet, then;

"Tsuki! Straighten up and show respect to these nice men." Her mother's voice cracked out like a whip and Tsuki automatically straightened and lowered her head. After all;

Mother knows best.

* * *

Gaara found the woman, Mitsuki Yamanashi, soon to be his mother-in-law, unbelievably threatening. She seemed pleasant enough at first glance, but the longer he was with her, the greater his discomfort grew. Sort of like sitting in a hard chair; you're fine with it at first, but as time goes on you just want to get out of it.

She towered above him like a hawk or vulture or some other wicked bird of prey, and kept him in a steady stream of questions that had hidden daggers in them. At one point she had gotten very close to his face and he had to fight the urge to reach out and slap her away.

Then Tsuki came rushing in, her blank eyes wild with fear, disbelief, and some other emotion that Gaara couldn't place. Her mother had been shocked, which was the only other emotion Gaara had seen on her face besides a pinched up look like she had just smelt something rancid, but she had quickly recovered and started barking out orders to her daughter like a drill sergeant hyped up on coffee.

Gaara allowed a very, very small frown to crease his brow. _What madness has wrought my home this time, _He silently asked the fates, _and why, __why__does it have to come in the form of in-laws?_

He silently watched as her mother walked in a slow circle around her daughter, straightening her posture and correcting some of her already perfect hair. Then she stood back and made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat.

"What, pray tell, are you wearing?" The woman asked with a snide tone to her voice. She was referring to Tsuki's civilian clothing. After all, she couldn't walk around in a formal kimono everywhere she went.

She was wearing tight shorts that came up to just over the top of her knees and a short sleeved white shirt that showed no skin except for her arms, and her long hair was in a high pony tail on her head.

Gaara, personally, could see nothing wrong with the attire. It was perfect for the hot climate of Suna, especially around this time of the day, when the sun was at its highest point. However this woman was looking as if her daughter was wandering around the streets clothed in only ribbons with a sign on her chest imploring a random passerby to ask her about 'candy'.

He cleared his throat at the, fairly nice, mental image that came with that. All pairs of eyes turned to him, and it took him a moment to think of a good enough excuse to give for the reason he had made a coughing noise. He couldn't just tell his mother-in-law that he was fantasizing about her daughter.

"Yamanashi-san, its good clothing to wear around here." Was his simple explanation. And it wasn't too bad, to get made up on the spot like that, and the best part was it was true. The woman blinked at him for a bit then returned to her haughty demeanor. For a woman whose husband just died, she wasn't acting very sad.

"Be that as it may, Gaara-sama," she started while looking at her daughter with mild distaste, "I still believe that she should change now. Tsuki!" the girl in question flinched slightly, "Go have Nina put some better clothing on you." Yamanashi-san finished with a flick of her wrist.

Tsuki bowed and Kankuro lead her towards the door but was stopped by Tsuki's mother, saying that she changed her mind and that she wanted to be the one to dress her daughter. Kankuro nodded respectfully and stepped away from the girl.

The two Yamanashi women left the room and Kankuro turned to Gaara with a low drawn out whistle. Gaara raised an eyebrow in response. He knew what the whistle usually meant; it's, usually, a "holy crap that bitch is crazy" whistle.

Kankuro walked over to Gaara's desk and leaned on it. "Holy crap, that bitch is crazy." He said shaking his head. Gaara allowed himself to snort at that.

"How did it go?" Gaara asked, deciding that a change of topic is probably best. Kankuro shrugged and made a gesture with his hands.

"The usual. No one seemed to be watching her, or anything. Although," he started to smile, "she did crash into a book shelf. That was pretty funny." Gaara suppressed the urge to roll his eyes, trust Kankuro to think that a blind woman running into a book shelf would be hilarious. "She asked about the wedding." Kankuro said, somewhat cautiously. Gaara steadily stared at him in turn.

"What did you tell her." It wasn't so much as a question as it was a demand. Gaara was trying real hard to keep most of it a secret so that she could be somewhat surprised. It was the least he could do to give her a good wedding, seeing as she left her country and her father got murdered for his cause.

Kankuro fidgeted and returned Gaara's stare. **(A/N: or was it more of a glare?)** "I didn't tell her much, I just answered what she asked." Gaara continued staring at him so he let up and said; "I just told her I was the best man, alright? Geez."

Gaara was slightly more relived by that. At least he hadn't told her anything vital. He was, however, still worried about Tsuki's safety. Switching to what Kankuro had so fondly nicknamed; Kazekage Mode, Gaara studied Kankuro. He looked like he was fit enough to help Temari keep a good eye on his fiancé.

"Kankuro can you watch Tsuki for a little longer?" he felt it would be a bit more polite to ask, rather than to stipulate, in this sort of situation. Kankuro jumped slightly and turned to Gaara. His painted face frowned and he nodded.

"I can." He answered. Gaara looked down at his papers the back up to his brother. He wouldn't deny that it bothered him to make his siblings to all of the watch work, but they were some of the few people he trusted to keep watch on his future family.

Gaara gave a small smile to Kankuro then stood up and walked to the one of the various windows looking out over his village. The sound of a chair scraping against the floor was heard as Kankuro exited the room. Once the door was shut Gaara let out a very long, very troubled, sigh, and leaned his forehead against the window. He shut his eyes and rocked his head on the cool glass.

He was so ready to just get married and get this over with. However, things are never that easy and Gaara was, almost literally, running on empty. The small nap that he'd had with Tsuki was the first sleep he'd had in a while and he hadn't eaten anything.

He'd been in worse situations, but while the opportunity was there, you should probably use what you have, namely; eat the food, and get a good amount of sleep. He opened his eyes lethargically and moved back over to his desk. _Might as well get some work done. _

There was a slight blur of movement and Gaara looked up at a shinobi crouched in front of him. He didn't remember which one this was, but he looked slightly frantic so, he was top priority as of now. The shinobi on the floor looked up at him and Gaara made an impatient motion.

"Sir, There has been another murder."

* * *

The scent of blood is one that a person doesn't usually forget. It's a sort of tangy and pungent smell that makes you want to cover your face and shrink away.

That was before Tsuki became blind and her senses were heightened.

Now it was a nearly over-whelming aroma that nearly had Tsuki fainting as soon as she walked into Nina's room. She had heard her mother's gasp and gag as Tsuki clutched the door frame for support. It was horrid. She couldn't seem to get away from the smell. She had covered her mouth and nose with her hand and turned her head towards the hallway, but it was working its way into her nose and surrounding her.

"I'm going to get someone." Her mother's voice seemed distant and Tsuki felt sluggish. Her footsteps seemed to echo as she ran off in a different direction and Tsuki slumped to the floor. Her knees made contact and there was something warm and wet and she scrunched up her nose and flicked her fingers through it then brought it up to her nose.

It was blood.

Tsuki was kneeling in a pool of blood. She retched and turned her head away. Almost in response to her reaction, a low chuckle sounded from in front of her.

Tsuki's head was roughly jerked up by a rough, cruel hand, and she was wishing that she could see so desperately it almost hurt.

"So, you're the one I'm to kill?" A cold voice spoke. He sounded almost disappointed, but there was an undeniable glee in his voice as he said it. Tsuki began to quiver and tried to get her face away from this man's harsh hand. He chuckled again and threw her face away.

Her hands caught her before she could fall, but they slipped on the slicked ground and she slid onto her side, blood soaking her clothing. Tsuki turned her head towards the sound of a sword being drawn. She held her breath as the swooshing sound of the weapon's descent was made and she flinched away, bringing her hands up to guard her face.

The swooshing of the rapier was ended by a thick, striking sound, and Tsuki jumped as an arm slithered around her waist and she was heaved up off of the floor and on to her feet, into a protective, one-armed embrace of sorts.

Her would be killer swore violently and then disappeared in an aggressive plume of smoke. Tsuki buried her face into the fabric of Gaara's shirt and continued to shake. _Why?_ She shouted where no one else could hear her, _Why? Why can't I just get married and have a good life? Why does someone want me dead? Why did that man kill people other than me? Why can't I go home? Why? Why? _

"_WHY?" _She didn't actually notice that she had screamed the word until it was too late, and by then it didn't matter. She didn't really know how many people were there, she didn't really know who was dead, and she didn't really care.

She just wanted to get out. To leave. To go somewhere where these petty problems couldn't touch her, and she could look at them as they tried and laugh at the foolishness of it. To go somewhere where she could breathe, breathe a long fresh inhale of air that no one could restrict her from making.

There were thousands of things that she wanted, almost all of them could never be done and she knew this. She knew this and yet she still wished and wished with all of her heart.

Tsuki hunched into Gaara's arms and wept tearless sobs.

* * *

It's a little bit of a saddish chapter, but it was a necessary investment that was so boring and hard to write I nearly had a seizure every time I looked at it.

Please review and inform me of your thoughts. (I really do care what you think, honestly.)


	4. In Which Gaara Is Unbelievably Pissed

**Happy New Year!! –Trumpet and stuff- **

**I got this one out faster than I thought I would, but I'm still happy with the way it turned out. **

**I wanted to thank Animestar001 for drawing the fabulous pictures of Tsuki for me. If you want to see them, go to my profile. (You'll like them, trust me.) I also wanted to thank everyone who's commented, it helps a lot!**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

* * *

In Which Gaara Is Unbelievably Pissed

* * *

To say that Gaara was angry was quite an understatement.

He was furiously-wrathfully-irately-heatedly fuming in a livid manner.

Now, no one that didn't know him well wouldn't notice the subtle notes towards his incensed state. Which is why; Kankuro flinched away when Gaara scowled in a miniscule way, and Temari gasped when the lead in his pencil cracked, or the way they both looked like they were going to scream when he said that he wanted something cold to eat.

"H-hey, Gaara?" Kankuro stuttered out as he _sloooowly_ inched closer towards the heated 'raccoon' with his hands up in front of his body in a defensive way. Gaara switched his enraged gaze towards his brother as he held the spoon in his mouth, licking away any excess ice-cream, and gave a small grunt. "What's wron-" he cut off half way through his sentence as something in the room exploded with a small poof of sand dribbling down from it and Gaara's little scowl became more profound.

What was he mad about? _Oh, I don't know… maybe it has something to do with the fact that my fiancé was nearly killed today, and we still have yet to catch the culprit? Nah, I'm just mad because all this humidity makes my hair unbelievably frizzy. _

He scowled and stabbed the spoon back into the container of ice-cream. As soon as he had gotten word that there was another killing he had an indescribable urge to find Tsuki and had quickly made his way towards the last known location of his soon-to-be wife.

He had soon come face to face with none other than; Mitsuki Yamanashi, who was in a panic and was babbling about a murder in the changing room. One of the ninja he'd had with him quickly calmed the woman enough to get a logical answer from her and she had confessed to them that she had left her daughter there.

She had barely gotten the words out of her mouth and Gaara had used his sand to teleport himself to her. He had arrived in time to catch a blade on its downfall towards Tsuki's head. Gaara had looked down at her and seen her covered in blood, it was soaked into her clothing, staining her long silver hair a violent red color, and was leaving a strange web looking pattern on her insipid skin.

He had quickly heaved her out of the gathering of blood and held her near himself so as to make sure that the man couldn't get anywhere near her. He hadn't needed to worry himself however, because the man had left as soon as Gaara looked at him. He was a well built man with a fair few scars on his exposed arms and a mask firmly in place on his face.

Once the threat had departed Gaara had quickly turned his attention to the girl covered in blood, to make sure that the blood didn't belong to her. She seemed to be fine, physically. She was shaking and shivering and her blind eyes were wide and frightened. She had screamed something, Gaara couldn't understand what she had screeched, and started to cry.

The rest of the shinobi had caught up with him mere seconds after Tsuki had calmed down well enough, along with Temari, Kankuro, a few elders, Yamanashi-san, and the girl's maid. He had handed Tsuki off to her mother and friend, and had to endure a stern talking to from the elders (bitter old goats).

It was only a few seconds after Tsuki was out of sight that the anger had attacked him. It was so swift and gripping that he had to take a few seconds to realize that he _was_ angry. He had clenched his fist and gritted his teeth to keep from hitting something or yelling profanities. Gaara had told a few ninja to clean up the blood and identify the body and then he had just walked off towards the kage office.

Which brought us back to the present; Gaara eating his comfort food crossly and his siblings cowering in fear. It almost felt like old times, all that was missing was the nagging voice of the One Tail in his head talking nonstop.

He sighed impatiently and put the ice-cream pot down on his desk. Gaara leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. _She's alright, though._ He told himself, as his anger quickly dissipated. _She's alright._

He looked in front of himself only to see Temari and Kankuro practically leaning over the desk looking at him with the most curious expressions he had seen in a long time. His automatic response was to lean back as far away and to do so as quickly as possible for threat of getting his nose decapitated.

"Gaara…" Temari's hand found its way onto his forehead. "Are you sick?" she asked, in an almost wondering tone. He wanted to scoff, but came to the decision that it probably would only earn him a smack upside the head so he just let her dote on him.

"No."

"You're sure? You seem to be acting weird today…"

"I'm fine." Annoyance started to leak into his voice and Temari noticed. She wrinkled her nose and frowned, then sighed and withdrew her hand.

"What did the elders want?" she inquired, crossing her arms in front of her. Kankuro followed suit, but sat down instead. Gaara thought back to the hushed conversation.

"They just lectured me about the usual, and I told them what the man looked like." He said simply. Temari 'hmphed' and Kankuro cocked his head slightly to the side. 'The usual' was the code for; They told me I was a failure as a Kazekage if I couldn't even defend my fiancé in my own home.'

Well, the fiancé part was new, but everything else was a replay of past conversations that they had. Gaara was completely used to it by now but it, apparently, still bothered his siblings when someone spoke to him like that, even (more like especially) the elders.

The mood in the room was taking a steady nose dive so Gaara changed the topic, for about the third time, to something that he had been worrying him for the better half of an hour.

"How is Tsuki?" Both of his family members jumped and looked at each other. Gaara watched the look they exchanged and evaluated it carefully. It wasn't a look that said they were trying to hide something that they didn't want him to know about, it was a genuinely confused look that had a bit of 'huh, weird' in it.

Temari was the one that answered his query. "She's probably taking a bath. I know I would." She said the last part under her breath and almost as an afterthought.

This, of course made Gaara remember Tsuki soaking in a lake of blood.

Which, in turn, brought his foul mood back.

He scowled picked up his slightly melted ice-cream and took a big spoonful.

* * *

_Wet._

_Lather._

_Rinse._

_Repeat._

Tsuki had been going through that cycle for a little under an hour, trying to get the red out of her hair. It turns out that blood stains pretty much everything. She could smell it in everything she had been wearing or, in this case, her hair.

Even though she had used countless gallons of shampoo, the flowery kind that made everyone want to barf, she could still _smell_ it.

Nina had gone to wash her clothing, and her mother was dutifully avoiding her only daughter. Tsuki was personally glad that no one else was here. Her mother had never been, and probably never will be, an enjoyable presence to be around. And Nina…

Nina was devastated.

Apparently, the man that was killed was Nina's secret lover of sorts, and they were going to meet in that room, but, as she soon figured out, that would never happen. Her handmaid and best friend had tried to conceal that she was crying but Tsuki could smell the tears and feel her quivering.

She had helped Tsuki get the bath going, helped her undress, got her into the bath, and then quickly hurried out muttering that she would wash her clothing, but even that sounded incredibly congested.

Tsuki was in her own world. She was ravaged by guilt and horror at the fact that someone had died for her sake, without even trying.

It felt wrong. Very, very _wrong_.

And why won't the smell go away?

_Wet._

_Lather._

_Rinse._

_Repeat._

She was scrubbing a bit more frantically now. Using more shampoo and soap, but it didn't seem to be working. She wanted to scream in frustration, and throw something. She wanted her life back and she wanted her father and the man that died today to be alive again.

Tsuki knew that she probably sounded like a whiner but she couldn't stop herself from wondering if her life would be any better if she wasn't blind.

It wasn't like she hadn't thought about this before; in fact she had thought about it countless times. She probably wouldn't be in this position because she would still be a ninja and, if her calculations were correct, would be a jounin by now.

She would still have her old friends, her father would still be alive and not treat her like trash, she could watch the sunset again, she could catch fireflies, she could try to count stars with her little brother, she could play hop-scotch, she could climb trees, she could see what her fiancé looked like, she could play games, she could pick out her own wedding gown, she could pick out her own wedding _hall_, she could look at the face of her newborn child, and she could watch herself grow old.

Now?

Now she would never be able to see her old friends or her father again, she would never be able to see the sunset or catch fireflies, her brother wouldn't have fallen to his death if she could see him and have caught him before he had fallen, she couldn't find the squares to play hop-scotch on, she would fall if she tried to climb a tree, she wouldn't be able to see what her fiancé looked like, she would never be able to compare her child's looks to him or her, and she would never be able to see the changes that were made.

She would never be a jounin.

And she would never get this smell out of her hair.

Tsuki scrubbed at her hair harder, and growled in frustration. She released her hair and dunked her head under the water to rinse it out. She closed her eyes and scrubbed her head under the water, blowing bubbles out of her nose as she went.

She surfaced again with a gasp of air and brought her hair up to her nose to smell. The salty, tangy smell was still there.

She let out a yell of anger this time and slapped her hand on the water, making a smart smacking noise echo through the room. She fumbled around for the shampoo bottle and found it. She snapped the top open and squeezed some more into her hands.

_Wet._

_Lather._

_Rinse._

_Repeat._

* * *

Gaara had long since finished his ice-cream and was now speaking with the wedding coordinator, who was one of the most annoying men he had ever had the displeasure to meet in his life, nearly tying Naruto for first.

He did have to hand it to the guy, however, that he knew what he was doing. The hall was going to look fantastic and everything was coming together perfectly. _I would probably never be able to come up with something like this ever._ He thought idly to himself as he lifted up one sketch of the hall from an upward angle.

The man had actually surprised him when he had come into the room. In truth, Gaara had totally forgotten about the wedding. It seemed like such an ordinary thing in light of the slightly un-ordinary occurrences lately.

His eyes moved from the piece of paper back to the man who was making dramatic gestures with his hands and speaking quickly about the dress.

"It shouldn't be too hard to embrace this beautiful woman's physique, although I must say that on such short notice this should be a challenge worthy of only me!" he said in, what sounded like, one breath. Gaara blinked in response and wondered how much this whole ordeal was going to cost him.

He had a rough estimate of a whole lotta money. That was okay, though. He defiantly owed her after the latest attempt on her life. Gaara pretended to look over the rest of the sketches and nodded when appropriate. _Where is she?_ He asked himself. _She should be with Temari, Kankuro, or I… _

He almost let out a sigh, but restrained it. He decided that he had shown enough emotion to fill his monthly quota, and should probably find it somewhere in his heart to control himself, so as not to frighten the children.

That and his siblings couldn't do with anymore frights lest they go into cardiac arrest or develop an ulcer or some other medical condition that one gets from being overly stressed. Gaara looked up at the wedding coordinator again and realized that he had had more than enough of this annoyance's presence.

He lay the paper down and stared right at him, which, as he had come to learn in his earlier years, usually causes people to stop and back away a few steps. The man did not disappoint. After he finished his back-steps, Gaara closed his eyes and told the man that he would think about it.

It turns out that the idiot isn't as much of an idiot as Gaara originally thought. He had quickly bowed and exited with the kind of speed that someone gets only from being threatened. When the coordinator had departed, Gaara cracked one of his eyes and looked over at the two shinobi that were stationed in his office.

"You can go." He ordered, wanting to be alone. They responded with a synchronized; "Yes, Gaara-sama." and disappeared in a plume of smoke, and then…

It was quiet.

Blissfully, silent, except for the sound of sand that was blown up by the wind hitting the glass of the windows with small 'ting's, and the sound of people moving about outside, but that was a nice background noise that helped keep things in the nice silence that he enjoyed.

Gaara leaned back in the chair again and opened his eyes to look through the window in the ceiling. Something was going to have to be done about Tsuki, he knew that much. He just wasn't too keen on having to tighten security around the young woman.

He of all people knew that people under pressure liked to have their space, the issue was; that usually people under pressure couldn't afford to have the space they desire, or else they would be dead. When he thought about it logically; the answer was simple.

Tighten security, protect fiancé.

That was what he usually would have done by now and Gaara wouldn't even be wasting time debating like he was now. That was, until he let his emotion cloud his judgment.

He found that he wanted her to _like_ him, and that he wanted to do everything in his power to ensure that, which included keeping her happy, ergo; nix on the tighter security. That left him arguing with himself in circles for hours on end and never actually reaching a conclusion.

It was maddening. On the one hand; he could tighten security, risk incurring the wrath of Tsuki, then hope that he could make it up to her at a later date once the whole situation was settled out, or on the other hand; he could keep security lax and watch her himself, skipping any awkward fights that may break out as a cause of the security.

Gaara found that he liked the second option better, but he didn't have time to be trailing his fiancé day in and day out, he had other responsibilities to his village.

And the circle makes another round.

* * *

Tsuki had experienced small nightmares before, but who hasn't? It's usually something that scares you at the time but when you look back on it you get so confused why you even thought that it was a frightening thing.

This was not the case, however.

The dream started like most dreams usually do, a faintly happy dream where you don't have a care in the world. The Tsuki in the dream was quite a bit younger than the current Tsuki, she hadn't gotten to see herself in a while and that's what she remembered looking like, and she was wandering around a garden.

Then everything got dark, a piercing, frightening dark that tried to consume her, body and mind and she was standing in the middle of the dark. Just…standing there. She called out, and no one answered. She tried again, and the same thing happened.

Suddenly, it wasn't quiet anymore. It started quietly, then grew in volume till it hurt to listen. It was the crackling sound that one gets when the radio isn't tuned quiet right or when the television is being stupid.

Then weird snippets of conversation that cut off quickly rang in and amongst the crackles. Tsuki could make out only a little bit of what they were saying and it didn't even make sense.

Try this, brand new!

You have to let it simmer for the appropriate amount-

How dare you!

Next up-

Go get your brother.

It was big and bright-

Don't go that way!

In other news-

Bitch stole mah money!

Tsuki whipped her head around trying to find where the noises were coming from, and soon came to realize they were coming from everywhere. She spun in a circle looking desperately for a way out and kept seeing the endless black.

"Stop it…Let me out!" she said it quietly but the desperation and panic was there. Tsuki had only ever been stuck in a genjutsu once, and she had hated it. This was very reminiscent to the genjutsu, and then suddenly, she knew it wasn't real.

"Y-you're not real." She stuttered, her voice growing in strength. She spun in another circle and repeated it; "You. Are. Not. Real."

We are as real as you want us to be.

The voice seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time and it caused her to jump. "W-what? Stop it! Let me out! I don't like this! Help!" Tsuki was screaming now. Frantic and desperate, she began to run in no particular direction. She ran and ran as the voice laughed a cruel sadistic laugh and said;

You can't leave. You're stuck in the dark forever. There is no way out.

Tsuki ran faster and tripped over her own feet, skidding as she hit the blackness, and turning around to look up at nothing. Then, as quickly as the noise had started, it stopped. There was silence once again, and Tsuki looked around, turning in yet another small circle. She stopped. _There! There was someone over there!_ She ran towards the figure with its back turned to her and placed a hand on its shoulder to turn it around. She screamed, as it finished turning. It had no face.

You can't get out. The voice sing-songed, taunting her. The faceless person reached up and encased her in its arms and Tsuki woke up with a jerk, screaming.

There was a flurry of activity, noises that she didn't comprehend, and then there were arms around her. She struggled in vain and whimpered.

"Tsuki-sama, relax, please." Nina pleaded in her ear. Tsuki stiffened and then collapsed. As she breathed in shuddering breaths she began to make sense of the surrounding noise. There was Kankuro and Temari, talking fast with another voice that she didn't recognize, and her mother was standing near, she could smell her signature perfume, and Nina, who was making sure she didn't fall apart.

She couldn't even remember the dream anymore, but the panic and fear it had induced lingered. She needed comfort, but felt horrible taking it from Nina. She was the one who needed the comfort, not Tsuki. _It was just a nightmare_, she told herself, _just…a nightmare…_

Tsuki gulped down air in an attempt to calm herself. She Slowly sat up and the conversation in the room stopped as she drew in a shaky breath. Nina still had her hands resting on the lower halves of her arms, like she was worried that Tsuki would strike out.

She brought her head up and practically begged;

"I want to see Gaara."

* * *

Gaara's horrible mood had evaporated the moment that Tsuki had been escorted into his office, by a nervous looking Kankuro and her paranoid serving maid. His eyes never once left her as Kankuro walked over and explained that she had just experienced a nightmare and that she had asked to be brought to him. Gaara, also, tried to ignore the small feeling of pride that had welled up in his chest at the admission.

Kankuro had left, but the serving maid was reluctant. "Your name?" Gaara had asked. She visibly jumped back but had the decency to look embarrassed.

"Nina, sir." She had whispered, fearfully. He nodded and looked at Tsuki, then back at the girl.

"You can stay if she wants you to." Was all he had said, as he walked forward to get a better look at Tsuki. She was shivering again, but this time, Gaara presumed, it was from the briskness of the night air. Her long hair was tangled and messy, but still caught the glow of the moon through the window. She had small dark bruises under her eyes. She was wearing a nightgown that didn't hide much, but did the job. Her hand was at the collar, holding it shut.

He considered, briefly, sending her away, but the thought get smashed under a big rock as soon as she looks up in his direction, a silent plead in her eyes. He'd sighed and took her by her arm gently and led her to his seat, sitting her in it.

She fell asleep in less than ten minutes.

Her serving maid had also gone off to dreamland, and Gaara was awake and looking out the window again. He had been standing that was for most of the night, and his eyes caught the peeking of the sun coming over the horizon.

He let a smile grace his lips and he turned around to look at Tsuki again. Her mouth was slightly open and a small string of drool was by the corner of her mouth, she snuffled a little and tried to turn over in the small chair.

Gaara walked over to her and gently moved a strand of her hair from out of her face. He stood straight up again and whispered, partially to himself, and partially to his sleeping fiancé;

"Wedding day."

* * *

**I'm kindof worried that I made Tsuki seem like a complainer... UHG!! -hand to the head- Whatever!! **

**OOOOOOOOHHH!! THE BIG DAY IS FINALLY HERE!! I'm excited for it and I'm not even sure why, but whatever. –Big smile- **

**Review! **


	5. In which there is Sex Ed and a Wedding

**Duh-duh-duh-duuuuuhh!!! IT'S, ALIIIIIVEAAAHH!! **

**This was so much fun to write, but just a warning; **

**The point of view hops around a bit and I tried to make it as understandable as possible. Do enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: What? Me? Nooo...**

* * *

In Which There is Sex Ed and a Wedding

* * *

Tsuki woke up the next morning in her bed. She moved her hands around the duvet, feeling for something; even she wasn't really sure what in her half asleep haze. The door smashed open and she gave a small shriek and pulled the covers over her head.

"Tsuki! Get up, _now_!" It always amazed her how her mother could still maintain her lady like voice but yell at the same time. The covers were pulled out of her grasp and Tsuki curled into a ball to fight off the cold.

"Mrrhhgahhh!" Was the answer she had for that demand. Tsuki could have sworn to anyone that at that moment her mother growled.

"Get up, now! You have to get ready." Tsuki felt her leg being smacked as her mother walked around her room in a huff. She slowly sat up, feeling the sleeve of her night-gown beginning to slide down her shoulder. _Get ready?_ She thought in confusion as she fixed the sleeve, _for wha-_ Her thought process cut off halfway and her eyes widened.

The wedding. She put her hand to her mouth as the memories came back. She was getting married. _Today._ Tsuki had been starting to get the painfully hungry feeling in her stomach that most people have when they wake up, but now it was gone, trampled in a stampede of butterflies, and she was pretty sure that she paled at least five colors down.

She tried scrambled up off of the bed, but her foot got caught in the covers tangled together at the foot of it and she let out a surprised yelp as she hit the cold floor. Tsuki winced as she propped herself up on her elbow with one arm, and with the other she attempted to push herself up, while her feet were still stuck in the covers.

Her mother gave an exasperated sigh that sounded more like a hiss and then her hands were encircling the arm that Tsuki was using to prop herself up, and pulled Tsuki up onto her feet. Her mother 'tut-tut'ed and her hands began their journey from her head to her feet, fixing the imperfections that her mother spotted.

Tsuki barely even noticed, she was too busy being attacked with a steal bat by most of the emotions that a bride gets to go through in the months that the wedding is planned, but was denied to Tsuki.

There was the excitement; she was getting married after all, who _wouldn't_ be excited? And to the Kazekage? Whoo…

Then there was the gut-wrenching moment of joy where you just want to start crying, Tsuki didn't, thank goodness.

After that there was nervousness; what if she tripped and fell flat on her face in front of all those people that came to watch her on the most memorable day of her life.

Then there was panic; what if this whole thing was a complete and total disaster waiting to happen, and that this was going to be the worst mistake that she would ever make in her entire life; _Should I cancel the wedding? I should cancel the wedding. Wait, no, I can't!_

Then there was that ultimate calm before the storm. It felt like her body was devoid of all emotion, flushed away down a hypothetical toilet, as she turned and walked towards her bed, then sat on it. Her mother made a noise in the back of her throat and Tsuki recognized the tapping of her shoes as she walked closer to her.

"What's the problem now?" Mother asked, sounding remarkably like a five year old whining. Tsuki turned her head towards the sound of her mother's voice and the smell of the perfume.

"I'm getting married." She said, barely above a whisper, in a hesitant way, almost expecting someone to crash through the window wearing a clown outfit and proclaiming that it was all just a big joke and she could go home after collecting her prize.

A long moment of silence followed her statement, it was enough time for Tsuki to realize that a man in a clown suit would not, in fact, be crashing through any of these windows today. Her shoulders slumped and she put her face in her hands.

"I don't know whether to be ecstatic or frightened beyond belief." She told her mom, the sound slightly muffled into her hands. The part of the bed next to her dipped as her mother's weight was to be found on it and a warm, comforting hand was placed on her upper arm.

"Both are normal." Her mother answered in a voice that almost sounded motherly-ish. "You are doing the right thing, Tsuki. Trust me." The hand on her arm moved up and down a few times and then it was removed and the weight was gone like her mother leapt off of it. Tsuki's face shot out of her hands and her head turned from side to side.

"What? What's wrong?" she asked, standing also. Tsuki stopped and listened to the sound of tapping feet on the floor outside, and steadily getting closer to her room. _Oh _god_, no…_

What little color had returned to her face had fled again as the door opened and aunts, cousins, maids, any other female relative on her side of the family that she could ever _think_ of, and women that she had never heard in her life, all gathered around her making fretful noises and calling greetings and well wishes to her and her mother.

Her hair was lifted and twisted and there was about fifteen different women talking about what to do with it, all of it was highly elaborate and Tsuki was frightened to even want to think about it. Then they were arguing about it. One woman wanted it to be in the traditional Sunagakure style for the wedding, and one of her distant aunts on her father's side was arguing that they should do it in _their_ traditional way.

Blood was about to be shed, as a voice that Tsuki recognized and was immediately grateful for, rang out over the crowd with such force it could only have come from lungs belonging to her soon-to-be sister in law, Temari.

"HEY!" she bellowed. Every single conversation stopped and the rustle of kimonos signaled that the clusters of women were turning to look at the intruder. Temari cleared her throat and finished her sentence with authority that one only got from being the oldest sibling of boys; "Anyone who isn't the bride, maid-of-honor, the mother, or the people who are supposed to help get the bride ready, needs to leave _now_."

Some of the feet began to move as soon as she was done talking, but there were a few complaints that were quickly silenced, by and angry Temari, and in record time, the room was empty save for the people mentioned. Tsuki gave a sigh of relief. She raised a shaky hand to her temple and closed her eyes.

"I don't know if I've told you yet, but; I'm really glad we're going to be related." Tsuki told her, the liberation clear in her voice. Temari chuckled in response and muttered something about Kankuro. "What?" Tsuki asked, taking her hand off of her face and opening her eyes.

"Oh, nothing, nothing at all." Temari said in a cheery voice, "Now, we need to get you ready for your big day." she finished, not even attempting to hide the glee that was in her voice as her mother and Temari grabbed opposite arms and began to lead her forward, out the door, and to the right.

"W-wait, where are we going?" she stuttered out. Tsuki began to feel worried, anyone could do a jutsu to make them look and sound like her mother and Temari if they wanted to, and she wasn't going to give up without a total reassurance that this was them. Tsuki began to lightly struggle against the grips on their arms.

"Where do you _think_ we are going, Tsuki?" her mother snapped back. Ah, good old mom; she was defiantly real. No one but the original could do the 'You embarrassment' voice with such perfection. Tsuki could tell that this was actually Temari, and inwardly scolded herself for her foolish worries. Temari always had the scent of wind on her, Tsuki reasoned that that sounded slightly odd, but it was true.

Temari always smelt like she had been outside in a windy field all day. Sort of like fabric softener but less artificial. The small party came to a halt and Tsuki heard a door slide open. Temari led her to a seat and sat her down. Tsuki was a little confused; hadn't they been going to get her hair and stuff done?

There was a soft flupping sound as her mother sat down across from her. Then the room was just eerie quiet, sort of like calm before a storm. Temari cleared her throat, which effectively broke the silence that her mother was probably going for, and Tsuki tried really hard not to giggle.

"So-o-o… didn't you have something you wanted to tell Tsuki…?" Temari prompted. Tsuki sat up straighter after Temari said that, very curious as to what the heck it was.

"Of course I do, but I will tell her on my own good time, thank you very much." Her mother sniffed.

"Well, get on with it!"

There was a sigh and then a shifting noise as her mother turned to face her. "Well, Tsuki," her mother stopped to cough, "I have something I need to talk to you about."

"Yes?"

Another cough.

"Well, hem, what do you know about sex?"

…

OH DEAR _GOD_!!

* * *

Gaara wasn't really sure how Tsuki's wedding day was going so far, but he hoped it was a far cry better than his seeing as he was, as of now, pretty much sure he had been scarred for life. He was almost positive that his eyes were the size of dinner plates and that his mouth was hanging open.

He had just had the sex talk.

With Kankuro.

Gaara felt his eye begin to twitch violently as his older brother began to pack away his porn, humming to himself happily and for the first time since he had been converted to the good side, he was seriously contemplating cold blooded murder. Kankuro shut the case holding his vast collection of dirty magazines and locked it with a chakra seal, then stuffed it under a loose floorboard, turning to face Gaara.

"And that's how babies are sort of made." He finished with a large smile and a thumbs up. The twitching ceased and Gaara scowled at him.

"Forgive me if I don't wish to tie my wife up and whip her during the process of making children, for which I see no reason to actually do." Gaara said with as much venom he could muster. Kankuro gasped and scuttled back so he had his back against the wall and was watching him with a horrified look.

"Gaara," he started and Gaara blinked, confused. "Is that just a fancy way of saying you don't want _sex_? Are we even _related_?"

"I ask myself that almost every day." He responded, avoiding the actual question. He did really want to have to think about that yet, not until Tsuki and he were friends and even then he was hesitant. Gaara wasn't sure he wanted to be around children, much less father one. Kankuro seemed to understand the underlined meaning and slid down the wall and crawled over to his brother to bop him gently on the shoulder.

"Don't worry about it." He stated, smiling in a reassuring manner. Gaara smiled in return. "I'm sure your wife will understand that you like men." Gaara stopped smiling and Kankuro was pinned to the wall in an encasement of sand all in the same second.

"Try not to put words into my mouth. I never once said, or even hinted, that I'm gay." He hissed back at Kankuro who was trying hard not to smile despite the obvious discomfort.

"Joking, joking." He said, muffled by the sand that was slowly creeping up over his face. Gaara grit his teeth and turned around letting the sand drop his brother as un-gently as it could. Kankuro made a pained noise as he fell on his butt. "That hurt." He grumbled.

"Good."

Kankuro made a noise in the back of his throat and Gaara watched him out of the corner of his eye. He was brushing sand off of his clothing, still smiling, then straightened up and slouched all of his weight over to one leg.

"Lighten up, bro. It's your wedding day for fuck's sake." He drawled. Gaara wanted to groan but stopped himself and just settled for a slightly annoyed twitch of his finger. He was not happy about getting married. Not happy at all. It wasn't because he hated Tsuki, it was because his experience with families was slim to none and the old saying; 'Like father, like son." Rang in his mind.

The subject needed to change as of now.

"How did you keep that much porn hidden from Temari all this time?" he asked, then shuddered as he remembered some of the things from it. Kankuro smiled and shrugged.

"I put it in a room she never goes in," he gestured to the room they were in, "and I have a whole crap load of chakra seals on it, so even if she did find it she wouldn't get it open." The he beamed like he was a genius worthy of an award for hiding his porn well. Gaara knew his eye was going to start twitching again.

His eyes roved over towards the room with his clothing he needed to wear. They were tight but baggy and itchy-ish looking. It didn't look all that comfortable so he was trying to put it off for as long as he possibly could.

This is one of the reasons he had allowed the mental torture of pornography to commence. He glanced out the window at the swirling sand, evidence of the storm that was brewing, and wondered how Tsuki was doing.

* * *

"Tsuki! Stop being such a baby about it and listen to me, and _stop_ writhing on the floor. I don't _care_ if you don't want to touch this, you will _anyway_. Now, where was I… oh yes!" insert cough here as Tsuki mimics strangling herself. "It depends on the man, but, usually, he will visit you to um… do the deed… at least a few times a week…"

* * *

_She's probably fine_, Gaara told himself, turning away from the window and walking out of the room to put the uncomfortable clothing on.

* * *

Kankuro watched as his brother left the room in his calm walk and smiled vaguely. He was really surprised that Gaara had sat through the entire spiel of his. He had half expected him to stand up in the middle of it, laughing like a maniac, and run off to join the circus.

Not that Gaara would ever join a circus, but, hey, insanity can do that to you. Besides, if Gaara ever did lose his marbles…again. He would probably become something a little more subtle like…

A mime.

Yeah, a mime seemed like something Gaara could pull off pretty well, better than a clown anyway.

Kankuro keeled over, stifling his laughter under his hand as he mentally pictured Gaara standing on street corners, face paint and all that stuff, miming being stuck in an invisible box. He slumped down the wall and sighed as his laughter dissipated.

_God_ he loved weddings.

* * *

Mitsuki was not a very patient woman.

She had expectations for her daughter to follow, and, so far, she was seriously lacking. She sniffed disdainfully as Tsuki developed a look of nausea on her face as she explained what certain reproductive organs were for.

Mitsuki did not want to have to do this, it was bad enough when she had had to explain about the menstrual cycle, but this was just ridiculous! Tsuki could at least pretend to be a little more mature about the whole deal, and this would be over a whole lot faster. Temari was clearly enjoying this, however.

Mitsuki sniffed again as she surveyed the girl soon to be her daughter in law.

Sloppy. The way she stood was sloppy, no alignment whatsoever. She looked like a sloth for goodness sake! And the way she spoke, oh my, _my_!

_If I was her mother, I would have handled this a long time ago._ Mitsuki hmphed.

She was looking forward to how the wedding would turn out, though. She also hoped that she could get to her grandchildren before their mother and father poisoned them with bad influences.

This thought was all that Mitsuki Yamanashi had to fuel her drive as she pulled out an engraved photo for her daughter to feel that showed two people in a nearly impossible pose.

_Give me strength._ She prayed silently.

* * *

Gaara was right.

The clothes were horrible.

They itched and they pinched and he wasn't even sure they were on the right way. Plus, to make matters worse, they rode up in unnamed places. Gaara scowled and wriggled uncomfortably.

Kankuro thought his clothing was great. Of course _he_ got to wear just a normal fancy tuxedo, _he_ didn't have to wear some formal…thing that was painful to walk in,_ he_ wasn't getting married. _He_ didn't have to worry about getting everything right, _he_ didn't have to drink nine cups of ceremonial, which is just a fancy word for crappy, sake, _he_ didn't have to greet all four hundred and thirty six people attending, and _he_ sure as hell wasn't expected to reproduce at the drop of a hat.

Gaara knew that right now, he could just get out of there and leave the entire area in less than five minutes, and no one would be able to find him.

But he didn't. There were people counting on him and he was actually okay with the fact that he was marrying Tsuki, who was a very nice person and accepted him almost immediately.

That was the only thing that kept him walking towards the elders office so they could go over what he was supposed to do and where, before the wedding.

_Give me strength._ He wished.

* * *

Temari thought the kimono she was supposed to wear was beautiful, as far as bridesmaid dresses go.

It was a little small around the chest area, but still beautiful.

It was a soft buttery color with small butterflies running up the sleeves that shimmered when caught in the right light, and the hair ornament that came with it was a flower, Temari didn't know what kind, that looped into a part of her hair and had a dangly type thing that let off an appealing scent.

She had gotten dress an hour ago after "the talk" had finally gotten over with and a mortified Tsuki was transported to hair and makeup. Temari had seen Gaara and Kankuro walking towards the elder's office, and wasn't too awfully surprised to see that Gaara looked ready to kill something and Kankuro was his usual self, but he wasn't wearing the face paint of his hat.

She was going to join them, but she had other things she needed to do, such as;

sure that all last minute things have been taken care of

the seating chart for the thousandth time

sure none of the flowers wilted or died before the wedding started

the music selection ready

the sake set out and prepared for the holy man

_find_ the holy man.

on the cake

the flowers for the bride; she picked the prettiest daisies…

everyone dressed and ready to go

every napkin to look like a bird of paradise

out how to fold a napkin to look like a bird of paradise

the wedding precession in line

moral support for the bride

try not to cry after the wedding started and her baby brother was married off before he even turned twenty…

Oh, _god_… Temari placed the back of her hand to her mouth to stop herself from crying as she halfway sprinted to go do the first thing on her list.

* * *

Nina smiled ruefully as she helped put the finishing touches on Tsuki's outfit. She promised herself she would be happy for her friend and mistress on her wedding day. She would keep that promise, no matter what. She patted down the wrinkles in the sleeves of Tsuki's dress, and moved her own skirt out of the way as she stepped back to look at her friend.

She looked so much older than sixteen, so much more beautiful, even her eyes looked gorgeous, almost like pearls. Tsuki had a faint blush illuminating her cheeks and she lowered her head slightly and folded her hands neatly in her lap.

Her dress was a glowing golden silk that had small flowers on the sleeves and hems, a butterfly ornament, and chopsticks with dangles holding up her mass of silver hair, which, before the precession started, would be covered up by a white veil.

"You look beautiful, ma'am." Nina said as sincerely as she could, reaching out to grasp her mistress's hands and give them a reassuring squeeze. Tsuki smiled shakily and lowered her head again.

Then she looked up, her sightless eyes looking right into hers and she opened her crimson painted lips and said;

"Thank you for being here. This means so much to me." Nina was taken aback for a second then she felt the tears coming. She tried to be discreet about it but Tsuki noticed and, still looking out into space but with a slight frown blessing her beautiful brow, she moved her finger up and flicked away a tear gently. "Oh don't cry! It's a joyous day today." She proclaimed, and then smiled. Nina wanted so to give Tsuki a hug, but was worried that she would mess up the nice dress.

Tsuki seemed to notice the battle in her and crushed Nina to her chest in a strong and needy hug. Nina wrapped her arms around her friend fully and let a few tears leak out as she felt her sister friend shaking.

Nina gently pat her back and whispered;

"Don't worry, it'll be okay."

* * *

Tsuki was fairly panicking.

The wedding was soon and she was nowhere near ready for it. The stress was almost overwhelming as she paced restlessly, avoiding where she remembered hearing people putting stuff down at.

She knew that she didn't have to worry about anything, Temari was in charge of everything that needed doing, but that didn't stop her from letting her mind wander through completely impossible scenarios, like if she tripped, or if the sake wasn't the right kind, or if the priest never showed up…

Tsuki almost yelled in surprise as her brooding was cut short by the sound of pounding footsteps that signified someone clearly in a hurry. Then she blinked and crinkled her eyebrow, confused. The feet were…_small_ feet. No other way to really put it besides small. The door slid open with a small creaking noise, and then it was silent in the room save for the labored breathing of a child.

There were more footsteps running past outside, but they quickly left and the child let a sigh of relief out.

"Crazy women, this doesn't even look good on me…" the child grumbled. It was a boy. He _sounded_ cute, annoyed, but cute. Tsuki giggled gently, bringing her hand up to her mouth, though careful not to actually touch her lips for fear of messing up the paint. The boy stopped talking immediately and his feet made hurried noises as he quickly turned to look at Tsuki.

She tried to smile as warmly as she could because she figured he was probably looking at her and she didn't want to frighten him or make him think he was in trouble.

"Hello." She spoke quietly, almost a whisper but not quite one. The child walked towards her with hesitant steps.

"You're the bride." He pointed out. Tsuki refrained from saying something mean and just nodded.

"I do believe I am." She answered. She could feel the heat from his body as he entered her space. She blinked and tilted her head to the side. "Is something wrong?" she queried. There was a soft noise like something moving fast and she realized the boy was probably shaking his head.

She inhaled softly and knelt in front of him. He didn't move back but she did feel him tense.

"Could you do me a favor?" she asked softly. The boy nodded again then seemed to notice his error and corrected himself;

"Y-yes."

Tsuki smiled more sincerely now. She reached her hand out and ran her hand into his head.

"Hold still." Was all she murmured before she was running her hands over his face and torso gently, trying to get the best mental picture of this boy she could. He wasn't all that tall, a little on the pudgy side, but in healthy way and not an over-weight way. His hair was a little past his ears and shaggy, but soft. His nose was small and his ears were symmetrical for the most part.

He had tensed at first but relaxed as she had continued and he had grown accustomed to her hands. After she had done what she felt was the best, she removed her hands and straightened up.

"You're quite the gentleman. Very manly." She said in an attempt to get on his good side. He laughed an adorable laugh and moved closer to her.

"You're pretty." He responded a little shyly. Tsuki beamed at the complement and ran her hand through his hair. She liked this boy.

"How long till the wedding?" Was the next question this child asked. Tsuki blinked and wondered this herself. She couldn't be late, Temari would have come barreling in by now, but she could not for the life of her remember how long till the wedding, which was slightly ironic, seeing as she was counting the seconds not more than a few minutes ago.

"I…don't… remember…"

"You don't remember when your own wedding starts? That's a little weird."

Tsuki bristled slightly at the cheeky comment, but shook it off.

"What's your name?" she side-stepped the past topic with, what she thought, was great ease. The boy was quiet for a bit then seemed to shuffle his feet about slightly.

"Ko." He answered. She frowned. The little twerp was lying.

"Right."

'Ko' made a huffing noise and turned around to stomp towards the door.

"You're not in a good mood are you?" he said angrily, then slammed the sliding door shut, and Tsuki was alone with her thoughts again.

* * *

Hyuuga Hinge stomped from the bride's room in a huff and went to find his mother before those crazy Suna girls found _him_ again. He knew his dad would probably be real mad at him, and start giving him the entire talk about how he was so "insanely lucky to even be going to this wedding and if he had to he would drag his sorry butt back to Konoha and put him in the time out room."

But Grandpa would protect him. Hinge nodded in a self satisfied, smug sort of way (You get that from growing up as a Hyuuga) and walked a little faster, wishing he knew how to work his byakugan. There was a noise of running from behind him and fear gripped his heart as he thought those horrid women had found him again and he ran for it.

He ran straight for the door in front of him, reaching, stretching. His fingers brushed against the handle, and he smiled triumphantly as he began to pull it op-

"Young man, what have I told you about running off?" the baritone of his father said as he hefted him up by his rear. Hinge let a squawk of protest and was turned around to look into the annoyed face of Hyuuga Neji. "Well?" he demanded.

Hinge turned his eyes away and saw his mother running as fast as she could in a formal kimono, slightly frantic expression turning to relief as she saw him. His dad cocked an eyebrow and twisted him again so that he was looking into his face. Hinge was trying to stall for time; his dad's arm had to get tired from holding him up eventually.

* * *

Neji could tell that his son was trying to be difficult, and was beginning to get slightly more than just annoyed. Today was a very important day, and they were lucky to be able to go along. Not that a four year old would understand that they were allowed to go along because it's good publicity for Konoha, it did help that your wife was the head of one of the most influential clans in the village. He glanced to the side as the person in question walked up beside him and took Hinge into her arms.

"Hinge, please don't do that again." Hinata begged quietly. He just snuggled deeper into her arms in response. Neji wanted to roll his eyes and wished his son had never run off. Why? Because if Hinge ran off, Hinata would be frantic so she would go and look for him, once _he_ realized she was gone _he_ would, undoubtedly, come tagging along to, any excuse to get away from the crowd and find Gaara.

"Hinata, there you are!"

Speak of the devil. Neji thought as he looked over at Naruto running around the corner, waving.

* * *

Talking with the elders was never too much fun. Gaara was in a sullen mood and it was getting worse as the time went by, and with less than twenty minutes till he was a married man, the tension was almost unbearable.

Then he had heard Naruto's voice, practically right outside his door. Gaara blinked in surprise and then slowly walked towards his, already cracked, door and slowly pulled it open.

It had been Naruto. There was also the Hyuuga's that had been on his team at one occasion, with a small boy that he did not recognize. They all looked surprised to see him, but Naruto recovered the fastest and practically attacked him, while the two others smiled and offered their congratulations before leaving as discreetly as possible.

Now that Naruto was here, things were defiantly going to get interesting.

* * *

Temari had the jitters.

Temari _never_ had the jitters! _Never_!

Not even on her first exam to become a genin!

And yet, with fifteen minutes left till blast off, she couldn't stand still, always in constant motion, seating guests, rearranging flowers, and fiddling with her hair. She had spoken to Shikamaru when he had arrived, but she had been needed elsewhere and that had ended quickly, with him leaving muttering something about weddings being so troublesome.

Temari glanced warily towards the place where the Kage's were sitting, then at the rest of the guests, then at the clock.

Twelve minutes.

* * *

Kankuro was excited.

Really, _really_ excited.

He was standing there, practically bouncing, as he looked enthusiastically around the hall. Sure he was nervous too, but mostly just excited. If he let himself get nervous then something would go wrong for sure so he couldn't allow himself that. Temari had motioned more than once for him to settle down. He just laughed it off.

He watched the clock eagerly.

Ten minutes.

* * *

Nina was walking towards the hall leading Tsuki with her, hurrying slightly. She had more butterflies in her stomach the closer they got to their destination. She was honestly happy now. She was excited and nervous and happy and sad all at the same time and it was slightly overwhelming.

She knew Tsuki was nervous, and that was pretty much it. Tsuki was sort of a singular emotion person; either she was one thing, or she was another, and at the moment, she was horribly nervous.

Nina placed a comforting hand on her arm in an attempt to make her feel somewhat assured in their hurried state.

Seven minutes.

* * *

_Where's Tsuki?_ Mitsuki thought frantically. She glanced down where she was supposed to be coming from and saw her, with mixed feelings. There was anger, there was relief, there was a sort of maternal pride, and there was sadness.

She had to admit that she had not been a very good mother to her daughter, but they were just too different. Mitsuki had never actually given this much thought, but in light of the fact that her daughter was going to get married and that she would officially not be part of her family anymore, it made her think.

Tsuki arrived with Nina who helped straighten her outfit a little bit. Mitsuki watched, wanting to say something comforting or something, but the cue music started and she turned away to get into her position.

The wedding had started.

* * *

Gaara tried not to let the fact that he was practically shaking show as the bridesmaids walked down the aisle followed by the mother and everyone else who was supposed to go. The holy man was sitting where he was supposed to and Gaara was near him. He noticed a flash of color out of the corner of his eye as Naruto waved to get his attention and flashed him a thumbs up.

Then Tsuki entered and he felt numb from the head down.

* * *

Tsuki could feel the eyes on her.

It creeped her out to no end, but she went with it. She was being led in by an official from Kumogakure. He sat her down and left. She was shivering as the holy man began to do his thing.

* * *

To anyone who may have asked at a later date; the wedding was a success. No attempted assassinations were counted as a success and if anything less than that happened no one cared. They did their thing, drank the sake, and said the vows.

Then Gaara and Tsuki were husband and wife, however unprepared they were.

* * *

**w00t!! Okay, here's where things are going to get interesting and I do need your opinions. For the next chapter should I...**

**1. Write about a few months after their wedding**

**2. Write at the reception**

**3. Have something bad happen**

**4. All of the above (I'd make it work somehow!!)**

**Please tell me how I did and what you think should happen!!**

**Love,**

**Kayka-chan**


	6. Author's Note

Author's Note.

-Gets on hands and knees to beg forgiveness-

I AM SO VERY BERRY SORRY THAT I LIED!!

THERE WILL NOT BE ANOTHER CHAPTER OF THIS STORY! CHAPTER FIVE IS THE LAST CHAPTER!

I decided, after intense and very thoughtful consideration I came to the conclusion that, I could not, in fact, find a way to add on a sixth chapter.

I shall, however, probably make a sequel to this. I still don't know what it will be called, or what the plot will be based on but I will think of something.

I am, once again, sorry.

Thank you for reading my story.


End file.
